- [Narrator] Primetime game shows,
(game show host speaks Chinese)
(contestant speaks Chinese)
- [Narrator] military parades,
(soldiers chant)
and bookstores with dedicated sections
to the writings of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
These are some of the ways China's propaganda machine
has elevated Xi's standing to levels unseen in decades.
(Xi speaks Chinese)
(crowd applauds and cheers)
- [Narrator] Over his 10 years as leader,
Xi has tried to orchestrate the country's rise
as a global superpower,
despite the recent slowdown in the economy
and pushback from the West.
- He really has overturned
the way China has been governed.
- [Narrator] So as Xi prepares to secure
a third term as president,
we break down these three moments
along his path to becoming
one of China's longest-serving leaders.
Xi joined the Communist Party in 1971,
and steadily climbed through its ranks
over the next few decades.
In 2007, he rose to the national stage
when he joined the Politburo Standing Committee,
a group of China's most senior officials.
- The party elite actually was craving a strong leader.
(audience applauds)
When Xi Jinping came to power in late 2012,
the party's power brokers got what they wanted,
and then some.
- [Narrator] The new leader's change in approach
was put on display right away,
when Xi visited the city of Shenzhen
to lay out his vision for the country.
And he chose a symbolic venue,
an exhibition called "The Road to Rejuvenation."
In a highly orchestrated moment
that was broadcast on state TV,
Xi was surrounded
by some of China's most historical objects.
- The display told the story
of China's rise from subjugation to triumph
under the Chinese Communist Party's leadership.
- [Narrator] And here, Xi unveiled the name
for what would be the next stage in China's story,
with him at its helm.
(Xi speaks Chinese)
- "China Dream" is a slogan that conveys Xi Jinping's desire
to make China a global superpower
that is equal to the United States.
- [Narrator] In the early stages of his rule,
Xi tried to make China's economy more open
and driven by market forces.
- He actually laid out
this very ambitious economic reform program,
which called for state companies
to operate more like commercial firms,
and for the government to promote entrepreneurship.
- [Narrator] He also shattered taboos in Chinese politics
by targeting party elders
in a wide-ranging anti-corruption campaign,
which ended up being popular with the public.
- He honed a very paternalistic public image
as Xi Dada, or Big Papa Xi.
- [Narrator] And Xi also challenged the US more forcefully
than his predecessors.
Xi's territorial ambitions
in regions including the South China Sea,
and economic programs such as the Belt and Road Initiative,
began to clash with US interests.
- His China Dream also meant
putting China on a collision course with the United States,
as China, you know, strove to be
a rival economically, militarily, and politically.
- [Narrator] And this collision was about to come to a head
when Xi invited President Donald Trump to visit Beijing.
- I remember on Trump's first day in Beijing,
Xi Jinping and his wife escorted Trump and his wife
on a private tour of the Forbidden City.
- [Narrator] Xi's plan was to charm his rival
and calm the simmering tensions
created during his leadership.
- There can be no more important subject
than China-US relation.
- Xi Jinping tried to convince him
that there's still so much to gain
from having a good relationship with Beijing.
But it didn't really work.
- [Narrator] A few months after the visit,
the US imposed a series of tariffs and trade barriers
on China.
Washington said it was in response
to unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft.
This began a trade war that upended markets
and reshaped global commerce.
- The trade war lasted two years, and both sides cut a deal.
It didn't really help improve the relationship.
- [Narrator] The trade deal was only a temporary truce.
Soon after it was signed,
the coronavirus pandemic began,
sinking the relationship even further.
- This horrible thing that was delivered by China,
and it was by China,-
- [Narrator] The US President blamed China
for unleashing the virus,
a charge Beijing vehemently denied.
The growing schism between the countries
only made Xi look more powerful at home,
as the man who had stood up to the US.
And he ensured that he would remain at the top
by removing term limits in 2018,
paving the way for him to become China's president-for-life.
- He tried to roll back China's decades-long evolution
toward Western-style, you know, capitalism.
This different path is basically socialism,
you know, in the spirit of Mao Zedong.
- [Narrator] And the spirit of Mao was on full display
in 2021, at the Communist Party's centennial celebration
in Tiananmen Square.
- We saw the TV footage of Xi Jinping
wearing this Mao suit,
and standing behind this, you know, podium
adorned with hammer and sickle.
("The Internationale")
- [Narrator] After a speech, Xi sang along
to "The Internationale," a socialist song
that, in China, has long symbolized declarations of war
by the working class on capitalism.
And it soon became clear that this war was being waged
at some of China's most valuable tech companies.
- Private technology firms
have grown tremendously in recent years,
but increasingly are seen
as challenging Xi Jinping's authoritarian rule.
(Jack Ma speaks Chinese)
- [Narrator] For Xi, they were gaining too much influence
in areas like finance, entertainment, and digital gaming.
- It was almost like a 180-degree turn.
He now is trying to further enhance
the role of the state, the government, in running economy.
- [Narrator] But even as Xi has continued
to concentrate his power over the past decade,
he's also faced challenges,
from the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong
to Covid lockdowns that have added pressure
to an economic slowdown
weighed by a battered property market.
And as Beijing and Washington
continue to compete for global influence,
Xi is carrying on with his dream
of making China a superpower.
- As far as he is concerned, China's time has arrived.