Xi Jinping and Pope Francis named SCMP's inaugural Leaders of the Year

The South China Morning Post's inaugural Leaders of the Year are President Xi Jinping and Pope Francis. This newspaper picked the two men for the major reforms they have pursued as the political and spiritual leaders of populations that make up more than a third of humanity. Editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei said: "News tracks change on a 24/7 basis, such that the big picture is sometimes lost. Our Leaders of the Year selection is a way to capture transformations that are taking place on a more historic scale. "It is hard to find two leaders in 2014 who have done more to make not just news but also history." Xi, 61, and Francis, 78, assumed their roles in 2013, just a day apart, and declared their reform agendas from the get-go, brooking no opposition. Even so, their dramatic moves last year took observers by surprise. The president's anti-corruption drive went after seemingly untouchable "tigers" in the Communist Party hierarchy, even as he zealously protected its ideological core and centralised its power. The pope was equally determined to tackle entrenched interests in the labyrinthine Vatican. He disarmed opponents with his humility and forced the Catholic Church to rethink its positions on sex, birth control, divorce and homosexuality. On the world stage, both men held their own. Xi hosted Apec in November and signed a historic deal on climate change with the United States in one of several decisive steps to forge a new big-power relationship. Pope Francis helped to broker a historic deal to normalise relations between the US and Cuba, breaking an impasse of over 50 years. The year ahead will continue to be full of challenges for both Leaders of the Year, with outcomes by no means clear. The year 2014 had many other types of newsmaker, including those who made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Islamic State militants defied belief with horrific crimes that earned them the label of a death cult. Beyond their playground in Iraq and Syria, they appear to have spawned imitators eager to commit random acts of hateful violence. At the other end of the spectrum were young people who inspired many with their acts of self-sacrifice. Indeed, with people power repeatedly making the news around the world in these past few years, it has become fashionable to focus on the grass roots. But Xi Jinping and Pope Francis remind us that leaders can - and still do - shape events. "Whether it is hard economic or security policy, or the seemingly softer but equally controversial realm of social mores and values, the issues that President Xi and the pope confront are going to be with us for a while," Wang said. "Such issues will no doubt continue to shape the 2015 agenda that the SCMP will cover as an international newspaper." Xi Jinping and Pope Francis have very different missions but both leaders have proved themselves willing and able to meet challenges on a grand scale, confront entrenched interests and chart unprecedented courses - making them the South China Morning Post's Leaders of the Year In the eventful year of 2014, two leaders arguably did more than any other to bring far-reaching changes to the world. President Xi Jinping and Pope Francis overcame great obstacles and led their peoples through an unprecedented series of reforms and changes. For this reason, the South China Morning Post has chosen them as our Leaders of the Year. "President Xi is faced with possibly the toughest leadership challenge in the world: how to take the still-developing nation of China, with its vast population and its new economic and political power, on the next stage of its journey of progress," former British prime minister Tony Blair told the Post. "His leadership is crucial. So far, he is proving he understands what he needs to do and how to do it. That is why he is a good leader to pick for 2014." Blair also endorsed Pope Francis as a worthy candidate. "He has made an extraordinarily impressive start. In doing so, he has achieved a standing for himself and a new pride in the Catholic Church. He is a good nomination for 2014." At first glance, Xi and Francis seem worlds apart with vastly different personalities and few similarities - other than each being responsible for the well-being of more than a billion people. Xi, 61, is a princeling politician from a prominent family. He is proud of his red lineage and committed to the continuity of communist rule. His governance style is described by many as "decisive and forceful". Pope Francis, 78, is the first non-European pontiff, coming from the Franciscan order that deems poverty a virtue. He is seen as a humane, warm leader who is sympathetic towards liberal ideas. In terms of their governance styles, Francis is the "yin" to Xi's "yang". Princeling and pontiff Although the two took office around the same time - Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis on March 13, 2013, while Xi assumed the Chinese presidency a day later - they have very different work cut out for them. Xi heads the Communist Party of China and is responsible for the prosperity of his country's 1.3 billion people. As the supreme military commander, he can make peace or war with other countries. The pope has no temporal power but serves as the ultimate spiritual guide to 1.2 billion Catholics, making important interpretations on key moral and religious doctrines of the church. But Xi and Francis face strikingly similar challenges in their respective realms. When Xi took over from his predecessor Hu Jintao , China was in danger of losing the momentum it needed to sustain its spectacular growth. Overcautious and ineffective, Hu failed to introduce major reforms during his decade-long tenure, often opting for compromise in the face of fierce resistance from entrenched interests. The country's model of growth was unsustainable and the party riven with internal strife. Many party elites were busy lining their own pockets and grew increasingly out of touch with the grass roots. Pope Francis’ objective is to restore the connection between the church’s organisation and its soul FORMER BRITISH PM TONY BLAIR Pope Francis is also no stranger to legacy issues. He was elected to accomplish one thing: reform a Catholic Church bloated with bureaucracy. Corruption and complacency have plunged the church deeper into a financial and moral morass, while high-placed church officials have indulged much of their time in petty factional wars. Pope Benedict XVI, considered an intellectual pontiff, "was too old and too kind to knock heads together", quipped the Spectator magazine. "The contrast with President Xi is obvious. Yet there is one similarity: the Pope has also embarked on a process of radical change. He knows that the Catholic Church is an institution of great traditions and history, but one that now has to rediscover its sense of mission and purpose for a new era," Blair said. Xi and Pope Francis took on their difficult jobs with gusto. While their strategies differ, both leaders show a strong determination to fight corruption and shake the ruling elite out of their lethargy. Some changes began in 2013 but many of the reforms took root in 2014. During the year, the new president rolled out a sweeping anti-corruption campaign on a scope and scale unprecedented in modern Chinese history. In March, former military top leader Xu Caihou was put under investigation, making him the highest military official to ever be implicated in a corruption probe. Xu, once the de facto leader of the world's largest army, was indicted and stripped of all military titles in October. The case rocked the People's Liberation Army to its core, yet Xu was Xi's biggest scalp. In July, after months of intense speculation, the party announced a corruption investigation into former security tsar Zhou Yongkang . A retired member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's highest body of power, Zhou was believed to be above the law. Before his downfall, no Standing Committee member - retired or otherwise - had been investigated for economic crimes since the end of the Cultural Revolution. Zhou was eventually ousted from the party and will soon face prosecution. With his downfall, dozens of highly placed officials implicated in his dealings were also brought down. But that was hardly the end of Xi's game-changing campaign. Before the year was out, Beijing netted yet another political heavyweight. This time it was Ling Jihua , the one-time right-hand man of former president Hu. Although Ling never made it to the top of the power hierarchy, for a decade he wielded influence far greater than his ranking suggested. He was considered one of the most powerful men in China and had built a strong network in the energy-rich province of Shanxi . "The [anti-corruption] achievement is unprecedented in the party's history. The result is so obvious that it leaves no doubt among the public about Xi's determination to fix the problem," said Gu Su , a professor of political science at Nanjing University. The anti-corruption drive quickly won the president public support. With astonishing speed, Xi became China's most powerful leader since Deng Xiaoping . Similarly, albeit on a smaller scale, Pope Francis has waged his own war against corruption. Before his ascendancy, the Holy See's finances were in the hands of cardinal secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone, who grew so powerful under Benedict that he was called the "vice-pope". Bertone was widely blamed for cronyism and turning a blind eye to rampant corruption. His own lavish lifestyle was blatantly out of keeping with scripture, troubling many Catholics. In a photo taken in Argentina in 2007, a regal-looking Bertone was seen proudly occupying an elevated wooden armchair, clad in a gold-embroidered silk chasuble. Sporting a pair of fashionable aviator sunglasses, the cardinal pursed his lips and looked straight ahead, oblivious to the gaping crowd around him. Right next to him, a humble Cardinal Bergoglio sat on a metal and plastic chair placed six inches lower than the stately Bertone. Wearing a simple white vest and an iron cross, the Argentinian was a study in humility, in stark contrast to the crass splendour of his Italian colleague. Six years later, Bergoglio became Pope Francis and Bertone retired a few months into the new administration. The pontiff did not stop there and continued to put the house in order. In February, he sacked five members of the Vatican financial watchdog, the Financial Information Authority. In July, the Holy See decided to close its €15 million (HK$141 million) investment in Lux Vide - an Italian television company that the Vatican Bank invested in at Bertone's insistence despite strong objections from the bank's own board members. This was just part of a wider review of Vatican finances. Eventually, hundreds of accounts at the Institute for the Works of Religion were closed, signaling the pontiff's determination to loosen ties between the Holy See and the business and political worlds. Next, the pope put the scandal-ridden Vatican Bank under the control of a new department with unprecedented power: the Secretariat for the Economy. The bank was previously under the cardinal state secretary. These decisive steps took many by surprise and were a radical departure from the approach of the pontiff's more doctrinaire predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict. The courage to change A key leadership quality - shared by Xi and Francis - is having the courage to break the mould to bring about much-needed changes. For years, it has been an unofficial rule of China's economy that no government should allow GDP growth to slip below 8 per cent. Anything less would spark social unrest and leave millions out of jobs, the popular theory goes. All local officials' performance is measured largely by the growth performance in their jurisdiction. Although Xi's predecessors talked about the need to switch to a more balanced and sustainable model, they did little to make it happen. In 2014, China's economy slowed after years of excessive investment. Instead of opting for the old route of spending the country's way out of trouble, Xi and his administration stood their ground, using the opportunity to deepen reforms and press on with restructuring. The effort won praise from observers. "The government's iron hand in combating corruption and tightening discipline has obviously strengthened its authority and ruling power, which lays a solid foundation for economic restructuring in the next stage," said Lu Ting, Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist. "Some of the reforms that have kicked off this year will likely be carried out further next year. While 2014 has been pretty much a preparation year for reform, we still have seen progress and breakthroughs in some areas such as financial and household registration reform." Lu Zhengwei, chief economist at Industrial Bank, agreed. "It has been an ice-breaking year for many key policies, although it would take some time for the effects of some policies to play out," Lu said. Lu said the most important policies rolled out last year included the clean-up of shadow banking to control financial risks, the amendment to the budget law, and the drafting of deposit insurance rules. "This year's statement issued after the Central Economic Work Conference was not the usual type of bureaucratic statement. The wording was very professional and in line with market principles," Lu said. Likewise, Pope Francis was not afraid to take risks to reform the church's traditional approach to sexual morality by becoming more tolerant towards homosexuals and easing restrictions on divorce, remarriage and birth control. These doctrines threaten to polarise Catholics and dialogue on the issues is often evaded. Instead of sweeping them under the carpet, Pope Francis ordered two unprecedented global surveys to find out what the laity thought. The results showed widespread disagreement with the church's teaching on sex, particularly among young people in the West. The findings were then used as the basis for a two-week free-ranging debate at church synods in October. Previous synods were carefully staged affairs with little real discussion. While the pope said he had little intention to immediately alter Vatican rules, the move sent shockwaves through the laity and leaders around the world. Ute Eberl, who attended a synod, told Reuters afterwards that she believed the session was aimed at getting the church "out of its comfort zone … to hear about real life for families around the world". And if that wasn't enough of a jolt to the system, Pope Francis used Christmas to mount a scathing attack on the Vatican's bureaucracy, accusing it of suffering from "spiritual Alzheimer's" and "the terrorism of gossip". He also accused the hierarchy of supposing itself to be indispensable and of forming cliques. Insiders and observers alike have since said it marked a hardening of the pope against the Vatican bureaucracy - and a bruising battle looms large. The world stage Xi and Francis also proved their mettle in international diplomacy in 2014. Xi can look back with satisfaction at hosting a successful Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing. In front of regional leaders, Xi appeared confident, decisive and at ease. He took the opportunity to bolster China's ties with Russia while improving links with the United States. On the sidelines of the summit, Xi and US President Barack Obama signed a landmark deal on climate change, making a good start for a global deal this year and showing how the two major powers can work together on key global issues. Xi also took the opportunity to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, bringing a much-needed easing in the tensions between the two nations. The meeting was carefully arranged so as to not upset nationalistic sentiment at home while also kicking the ball into Tokyo's court to improve ties. Xi visited Russia and signed a number of major deals with President Vladimir Putin. The visit came as Moscow was increasingly isolated by the West, greatly bolstering China's ties with its powerful northern neighbour. China again came swiftly to Russia's aid during the recent rouble crisis. Pope Francis also scored some great victories for his diplomatic work in 2014. The crowning achievement was his role in helping broker a historic deal to normalise relations between the US and Cuba. The victory was made all the sweeter when both Raul Castro, leader of the atheist Communist Party of Cuba, and Obama, head of the most powerful nation on earth, openly thanked the pontiff for his help. Francis wrote secret letters to Obama and Castro and offered the Vatican as a secret but crucial meeting place for the two leaders - an act that finally brought an end to the 55-year impasse. The pontiff once said that the secret of diplomacy was in "small steps and small things". He proved to be a master of the art. During his historic visit to South Korea in August, he sent an unprecedented goodwill message to Xi and the Chinese people as he became the first pontiff to fly through Chinese airspace. The subtle message was not lost on Beijing. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said hours later that China was sincere in improving its relationship and having dialogue with the Holy See. It may seem to be a baby step to restore diplomatic ties between the Vatican and China, but as the Cuba story showed, big endeavours often begin with a small gesture. All things considered, it is hard to look beyond Xi and Francis as Leaders of the Year. "2014 has shown [Xi] very capable of meeting this challenge. He has had the strength to make the necessary reforms in the Chinese economy; he has answered the call of the Chinese people to be a scourge of corruption; he has managed the regional issues with skill and delicacy; and he has put the USA and China relationship on a better and more stable footing," Blair said. "Pope Francis' objective is to restore the connection between the church's organisation and its soul, between the grandness of its traditions and the humility of its true and timeless spirit. "He has done this partly through his own actions, living with his fellow priests rather than in the big apartment normally the home of the pope … He has used his authority to awaken the world's concern over issues such as global poverty and the Middle East peace process. And he has been prepared to rebuke his own Vatican team and urge change upon them." The road ahead Looking ahead, both have plenty to deal with and the outcome is by no means clear. Francis' liberal leanings have already upset many conservative church clergy. Many complained in private and criticised his open attitude towards homosexuals. Some pointed out that homosexuality is taboo in Africa - where the church is growing fastest and where polygamy is the main social problem. As the Vatican prepares for a larger gathering on family in 2015, the pope will be tested on how to bring the church's teachings on sex up to date while keeping divisions manageable. For Xi, all eyes are on his next step in the anti-corruption drive after such a dramatic year. Public support for the fight against graft is remarkably high but so are people's expectations. While the president has initiated many reforms, it is crucial to keep the momentum in the new year. A backlash from entrenched interests is expected and Xi's tenure will be defined by the way he handles it. It's a balancing act that requires him to maintain stability while introducing necessary, even painful, reforms to help the economy shift to the next stage. [Xi] is proving he understands what he needs to do and how to do it FORMER BRITISH PM TONY BLAIR Lu Zhengwei, from Industrial Bank of China, said Xi had made it clear that stable economic growth was a precondition for reform. "China's growth should slow down gradually. An off-the-cliff type slowdown would be unacceptable. Nobody knows what the optimum pace is and we need to find it out through experiments," Lu said. Blair agreed the challenges ahead for Xi were "formidable" and stability was the key."He knows that the key to the future will be more change and reform, economically and politically, especially in the field of the rule of law. This evolution has to be accomplished at the same time as preserving the essential stability of the country," Blair said. For the people of Hong Kong, the controversy over the city's political reforms is far from over. Even though the Occupy movement ended in relative peace, the turmoil in the city presents a serious challenge to Xi. The president rightly chose to leave it to the Hong Kong government and police to handle the situation while standing firm over the principles. The protests ended peacefully and without getting the PLA involved - avoiding the nightmare scenario that many had feared. Ultimately, it will be up to him to decide the outcome. All eyes will watch to see how he strikes a balance and uses Hong Kong as a way of experimenting with modest political reforms. Xi Jinping June 1953 Born in Beijing. Ancestral home is in Fuping, Shaanxi province 1969 Graduates from Tsinghua University's school of humanities and social sciences January 1974 Joins the Communist Party of China 1979-1982 Serves as secretary at the General Office of the State Council and the General Office of the Central Military Commission (as an officer in active service) 1990-1993 Serves as party secretary of Fuzhou 1996-1999 Deputy party secretary of Fujian province 1999-2000 Deputy party secretary and acting governor of Fujian province 2002-2002 Deputy party secretary and acting governor of Zhejiang province 2003-2007 Party secretary of Zhejiang 2007-2007 Party secretary of Shanghai 2007-2012 Member of the Politburo Standing Committee November 2012 Named party secretary of the Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission March 14, 2013 Becomes president of China Pope Francis December 1936 Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, one of five children of an Italian immigrant 1958 Joins the Society of Jesus and becomes a novice 1963 Receives a degree in philosophy and spends the next three years teaching literature and psychology 1967-1970 Studies theology; ordained as a priest in December 1969 1973-1979 Serves as the Jesuit provincial for Argentina March, 1986 Goes to Germany to finish his doctoral thesis May, 1992 Appointed by Pope John Paul II as titular bishop of Auca and auxiliary of Buenos Aires June, 1997 Named archbishop of Buenos Aires 2001-2013 Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church of Argentina March 13, 2013 Elected supreme pontiff, becomes Pope Francis

Xi Jinping and Pope Francis named SCMP's inaugural Leaders of the Year

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The president and the pontiff stand out as leaders for their determination to drive changes that affect the lives of vast swathes of humanity

The president and the pontiff stand out as leaders for their determination to drive changes that affect the lives of vast swathes of humanity