Name: The rise of Xi Jinping, explained
Uploaded: 2024-04-08T09:28:02.000Z
Duration: 21 min 54 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

These are the 7 most powerful men in China.

They represent the top leadership positions of the ruling party...

and their identities are revealed  every five years...

at a carefully choreographed  political event

“China's Communist Party unveiled  its new leadership

is the head of the party  for the next five years.

At the most recent event  in October 2022...

China's president for the last ten years...

who walked out in the top spot  a historic third time

after getting rid of China's  presidential term limit

that restricted all his predecessors  to two terms.

A signal that he may be planning  to stay in power for life.

The world hasn't seen a Chinese leader like this

the revolutionary founder of the  People's Republic of China...

scarred the Chinese people  for generations.

And he clearly draws from Mao's playbook.

But there's something else  that connects these two.

Generations apart, their paths  crossed unexpectedly

and a teenage Xi from an  elite family in Beijing...

Condemned to hard labor in the countryside.

Xi is one of the most powerful  political figures in the world

So how did he go from  being banished in his country...

It goes back to when a bloody civil war  was raging in China.

A group of radical communist  revolutionaries, including Mao

gained influence over large swaths  of mainland China...

and controlled a communist military  called the Red Army...

ruling the Republic of China at the time.

At this point, the Communists  were losing bad.

The bulk of their army was pinned down here...

in a communist controlled region originally established by Mao...

So the Red Army decided to  launch a bold attack...

to break through the Nationalist forces and evacuate the roughly

130,000 communist soldiers  and civilians stuck here.

On October 16th, 1934,  they made their move...

and attacked a weaker part  of the enemy line.

And even though their numbers  quickly dropped

around 86,000 stuck together and pushed on.

The journey to establish a new communist base...

He'd insisted on using  guerrilla tactics

which had heavily influenced  the Red Army earlier in the war.

But that approach had fallen out of favor and he was demoted.

the Red Army continued to suffer relentless attacks

had pushed for a more traditional  wartime strategy

And the result was catastrophic  for the Red Army.

Less than half of the original  escape group

where Communist Party leader  Zhou Enlai...

And Mao picked an end point  for the march... here.

Mao led the Red Army  deep into the mountains

It was nine more months  of nonstop marching

and fighting along this  several thousand mile route...

before they ultimately arrived  in northern China...

where a guerrilla base led by  a communist revolutaionary

named Xi Zhongxun, offered Mao's army refuge...

Subtitles ListPlay Video

The rise of Xi Jinping, explained

ultimately

figure

general

spot