Xi: A Study in Power - By Kerry Brown : Between The Lines

Like many, I was captivated by Xi Jinping's almost unprecedented political trajectory. I view his dramatic life arc as a political 'sine wave': a privileged 'princeling' who was sent to the countryside as a hard laborer, only to ascend decades later to become the supreme leader of China. His genius lay in his initial obscurity. While rivals in Beijing were 'sharks fighting over a single sardine,' Xi spent decades patiently mastering the art of being boring. His non-threatening, nose-to-the-grindstone routine in the provinces led older Party leaders to choose him in 2012, convinced they had installed a dull, compliant puppet. They miscalculated. The humble bureaucrat was, in fact, a political chess grandmaster who had spent thirty years setting a trap.

However, given the political enigma Xi remains, the book falls short in its depth. Since his inner life is so obscured by the Party narrative, the text often analyzes the function of China's top leader rather than peeling back the layers on the man himself.