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Jun Mai

The strongman now presiding over China failed nine times to join the Communist Party as a young man before finally being accepted.
The anecdote about President Xi Jinping is one of several about his early years in the latest of a string of media reports to ­cement Xi’s personal authority ahead of a power reshuffle set for autumn.

The report on Friday in the Study Times, a journal affiliated with the party’s top academy, underscored his determination to join the party despite the persecution of his family.
China rolls out TV series eulogising Xi Jinping ahead of key congress
Xi’s father, Xi Zhongxun, was a communist revolutionary and rose to become a vice-premier.
But he became a target of ­internal party persecution in 1962 and was jailed and publicly ­humiliated during the Cultural Revolution, a decade-long era of political and social turmoil that started in 1966.

During the ­upheaval in his family, Xi Jinping was also besieged by mobs, jailed, made homeless and sent to the countryside for hard labour, ­according to the report.
Album showcasing life of Xi Jinping’s father is latest bid to raise president’s popularity
However, his father’s faith in the party and its political ideals – which remained unshaken, ­despite his 16 years of imprisonment – greatly influenced the son, the report said.

“No matter whether it was the White Terror (the Kuomintang crackdown on the communists), or the ultra-leftist era (the Cultural Revolution); ­despite being framed and encountering adversity, my father’s faith in communism was unshaken, and he always believed our party was great, righteous and glorious,” the report recounted Xi Jinping writing in a letter celebrating his father’s birthday in 2001.

The report also recounted Xi’s memories of being sent down to the countryside for seven years of hard labour in Shaanxi province.
Xi Jinping's tribute to father seen as a bid to shore up his position
“[I] did everything, blazing the trail, seeding, herding, carrying manure … I barely took a rest,” he was quoted as saying in 1995.
It also said Xi used to carry 100kg loads of wheat on one shoulder along a 5km stretch of mountainous road.

This is not the first time state media has offered details of the president’s turbulent early life and how some of the experiences apparently helped shape the tough and resilient leader portrayed on the mainland.

But the latest retelling is part ­of a massive public campaign ­designed to raise awareness of Xi’s personal authority ahead of the party’s five-yearly national congress later this year.
The campaign includes lengthy articles and documentaries published or aired by several official media outlets, which have credited Xi with the country’s ­major achievements of the past few years.



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Xi Jinping

The early years: the troubled times that ‘forged Xi Jinping’

Tales of struggle and loyalty from Xi Jinping’s early years retold in campaign to bolster president’s authority ahead of power reshuffle

TO MATCH:Profile: Xi Jinping: Man of the people, statesman of vision (121223) -- BEIJING, Dec. 23, 2012 (Xinhua) -- File photo shows Xi Jinping, then vice mayor of Xiamen City of southeast China's Fujian Province, poses for photo during an overseas visit. (Xinhua)

TO MATCH: Profile: Xi Jinping: Man of the people, statesman of vision (121223) -- BEIJING, Dec. 23, 2012 (Xinhua) -- File photo taken in 1985 shows Xi Jinping, then secretary of the Zhengding County Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), poses for photos as he visits San Francisco in the United States. (Xinhua)

TO MATCH:Profile: Xi Jinping: Man of the people, statesman of vision (121223) -- BEIJING, Dec. 23, 2012 (Xinhua) -- File photo taken in December 1995 shows Xi Jinping (1st L, front), then deputy secretary of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and secretary of the CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee, reinforces the downstream levee of the Minjiang River at Minhou County, southest China's Fujian Province. (Xinhua)

TO MATCH:Profile: Xi Jinping: Man of the people, statesman of vision (121223) -- BEIJING, Dec. 23, 2012 (Xinhua) -- File photo taken in 1972 shows Xi Jinping returns home in Beijing to visit his relatives during the time when he is an educated youth in countryside. (Xinhua)

TO MATCH:Profile: Xi Jinping: Man of the people, statesman of vision (121223) -- BEIJING, Dec. 23, 2012 (Xinhua) -- File photo taken in August 1993 shows Xi Jinping (1st L), then secretary of the Fuzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), meets with citizens in Fuzhou, capital of southeast China's Fujian Province. (Xinhua)

TO MATCH:Profile: Xi Jinping: Man of the people, statesman of vision (121223) -- BEIJING, Dec. 23, 2012 (Xinhua) -- File photo taken in 1979 shows Xi Jinping, then working for the General Office of the Central Military Commission. (Xinhua)

Xi Jinping sits in his office in Zhengding county, north China's Hebei province, in this 1983 photo. (Xinhua)

Why Xi Jinping must tackle the myth of princeling legitimacy to rule China

Lanxin Xiang says the damaging Mao-inspired campaign to establish the president’s authority and questions about the opaque anti-corruption drive indicate that, without serious reforms in the 19th party congress, Xi’s China Dream may be unsustainable

Portraits of Chinese leaders are on display in a shop in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on October 24, 2016. A key conclave of China's Communist Party elite kicked off on October 24 in Beijing, the official Xinhua news service reported, as leader Xi Jinping seeks to tighten his control over the organisation. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOUR

Photo taken in March 2017 shows Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and Sun Zhengcai, then the Communist Party's chief of Chongqing in southwest China, attending the closing ceremony of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing. The party said on July 24 that Sun is under investigation for alleged "serious violation of discipline," an official euphemism for corruption. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

This picture taken on September 22, 2013 and released by Jinan Intermediate People's Court shows Chinese political star Bo Xilai (2nd R) wearing a pair of handkuffs as he stands in a courtroom in Jinan, east China's Shandong province. Fallen Chinese political star Bo Xilai was sentenced by a court to life in prison on September 22, following a sensational scandal that culminated in the country's highest-profile trial in decades. CHINA OUT AFP PHOTO / Jinan Intermediate People's Court ----EDITORS NOTE---- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / JINAN INTERMEDIATE PEOPLE'S COURT " - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

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Tales of struggle and loyalty from Xi Jinping’s early years retold in campaign to bolster president’s authority ahead of power reshuffle
