This is John Batchelor, Conversation with the author Joseph Turigian.

He is the author of a new book about Xi Jinping's father, his father and mother, the generation

before Xi Jinping.

You know that Xi Jinping is considered a prince, one of the princes because he's the son of,

one of the revolutionary heroes.

His father's name was Xi Zhangshun.

He came from Shanxi province, which is in the northwest of the country.

This particular passage, Joseph explains, when Xi Zhangshun joined the Communist Party early, not as early as Mao, but early.

The life of Xi Zhongshun was one of violence, unexplained deaths, narrow escapes, persecution,

persecution of other people, persecution of himself, jailing, detention, suspicion, exile.

He died in 2000 at the ripe age of 87, born 1913.

And here is Joseph to explain when Xi Zhang Shen joined the Communist Party.

Much more of this in the coming weeks.

Joseph Tarigian, the party's interests come first to be published in June.

Here's Joseph.

So he didn't join the party quite as early as Mao Zedong, of course, or

Zhou Ani or Deng Xiaoping, but joining the party in 1928 is considered very early. And in a system

like this, when you joined and how much you suffered for the party was an enormous mark of

prestige and status. So in the future, when other people accused Xi Zhongshun of not really joining the party then,

which was hard to prove because he joined in jail,

it was a mark of personal pride for him to fight and be very insistent about when he joined the party.