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The John Batchelor Show

4/8 The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of XI Zhongxun, Father of XI Jinping Hardcover – 3 June 2025 by Joseph Torigian (Author)

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

News, Books, Society & Culture, Arts

4.62.7K Ratings

🗓️ 7 June 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

4/8 The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of XI Zhongxun, Father of XI Jinping Hardcover – 3 June 2025 by  Joseph Torigian  (Author)
1951 TIBET

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is CBSI on the World.

0:07.1

I'm sitting with Joseph Tarigian.

0:08.9

I'm John Batchelor.

0:10.1

The book is the party interest.

0:11.7

The party's interest come first.

0:13.7

That title is Mao's opinion of Xi Zhangshun, the father of Xi Jinping.

0:20.7

And what did it mean, Joseph, the party's interests?

0:24.9

So, Mao Zedong had this habit of giving phrases to his favorite tatters that he thought

0:31.1

perfectly encapsulated their characteristics. And it's interesting to think about why he decided

0:36.6

to give that particular phrase to Xi Zhongshun.

0:39.8

And I think one of the answers is that Xi Zhongshend suffered at the hands of his own party on several occasions, but that Xi Zhongshun nevertheless remained entirely loyal.

0:51.3

And so the Chinese Communist Party is an organization where you are explicitly

0:56.0

told that it's the organization that comes first, not your own personal opinions. And Xi Zhongshun was a

1:03.0

human. He often had his own views, but when those differed from the party, he put the party's

1:08.6

interests first, just like Mao expected he would.

1:26.2

The success, the retreat of the nationalist to Taiwan, they enter into Beijing, the speeches, including a speech by Xi Jinping, his father, Xi, John, Zhang Shun, on radio, there's a photograph of it.

1:32.6

You can see he's very, it looks to be a very young man jammed into his communist revolutionary clothes.

1:42.3

And he moves his family from the northwest from Shanxi to Beijing, taking up important posts in the early Chinese Communist Party.

1:47.0

And except, and what's important here is the second wife,

1:52.7

Shin is with him, and there are two sons born in Beijing.

1:58.9

One we know very well, Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.

2:04.4

And the second son, whose name is very difficult for me to pronounce, I'm sure you'll do it for me, Joseph.

...

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