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The Age of the Strongman: Understanding Xi

Politics &
Economics

What motivates the leader of the world’s most populous nation? What is his vision for China and the world?

This event is part of our Age of the Strongman series. Click here to see the other events in the series.

President Xi Jinping has ruled China for more than a decade. He has overseen an era of unprecedented economic prosperity, cracked down on dissidents, reinvented national identity in his own image and adopted a confrontational ‘wolf warrior’ style of diplomacy on the world stage. Xi has also abolished term limits as President of the Communist Party and it’s possible that he will remain China’s all-powerful leader for the rest of his life. So what motivates the leader of the world’s most populous nation? What is his vision for China and the world? How much should the West push back and how much should it cooperate with Xi?

In May 2025, Rana Mitter, renowned historian at Harvard Kennedy School and previously the Director of The University of Oxford’s China Centre, came to Intelligence Squared for the next event in our new series, The Age of the Strongman. Drawing on his work and recent book China’s Good War: How World War II is Shaping a New Nationalism, Mitter examined the key tenets of Xi’s political ideology, and how his cult of personality and military posturing in the Indo-Pacific will play out in 2025 and beyond.

The event was hosted by Gideon Rachman.

Speakers for the motion

  • Rana Mitter

    Historian of China and professor at Harvard Kennedy School. His most recent book is China's Good War

Chair

  • Gideon Rachman

    Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator for the Financial Times

Speakers are subject to change.

Speakers

Speaker

Rana Mitter

Historian of China and professor at Harvard Kennedy School. His most recent book is China's Good War

S.T. Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School. He was previously the director of the University China Centre at the University of Oxford, where he was Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China. His recent documentary on contemporary Chinese politics ‘Meanwhile in Beijing’ is available on BBC Sounds, and his writing on contemporary China has appeared recently in Foreign Affairs, the Harvard Business Review, The Spectator, The Critic, and The Guardian. His latest book is China’s Good War: How World War II is Shaping a New Nationalism.
Host

Gideon Rachman

Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator for the Financial Times

Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator for the Financial Times. He joined the FT in 2006, after 15 years at The Economist, where he served as a correspondent in Washington D.C., Brussels, and Bangkok. In 2016, Rachman won the Orwell Prize, Britain’s most prestigious prize for political journalism. He has written a number of books including Zero Sum World, Easternization: Asia’s Rise and America’s Decline From Obama to Trump and Beyond, and The Age of Strongmen.