Younger brother of President Xi Jinping speaks on their father's achievements

President Xi Jinping's younger brother, Xi Yuanping, has been making rare high-profile appearances at commemorative activities ahead of the centennial of their father's birth on Tuesday.

Xi Zhongxun was a leading mainland political figure whose revolutionary pedigree can be traced to the 1930s when he helped establish communist guerilla bases in the northwestern provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu .

As with many revolutionary leaders, Xi Zhongxun fell in and out of favour with the party, depending on which faction was in the ascendency. In 1962, internal party struggles saw him purged from all positions and he was not rehabilitated until 1978.

That year he moved to Guangdong where he helped establish his crowning achievement: the special economic zones including Shenzhen. He died in 2002.

In a China Youth Daily article yesterday, Xi Yuanping recalled his father's influence on him, and his bravery in spearheading economic reform in Guangdong. He also wrote about how his older brother was cared for by their aunt, and was implicated in his father's problems and placed under investigation too. He went on to describe the Spartan living conditions Xi Jinping endured in 1975 as the party head of remote Liangjiahe village in Shaanxi.

Yesterday's article was the second penned by Xi Yuanping to honour his father. In 2009, he published an article for the Xinmin Evening Daily in Shanghai that barely mentioned Xi Jinping, who was then vice-president.