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One reason there hasn’t been a good biography of Xi Jinping is the enormous personal cost. The CCP jealously guards his official story. Attempts to do in-country research on his youth or his decade in Fujian is dangerous for you, anyone working for you, and anyone you interview https://twitter.com/CurtisSChin/status/1355750850271064065
And how can any serious biography not make a bold attempt to get to the bottom of his time as a teenager in the Cultural Revolution or his meteoric rise in Fujian during a time the province was awash in massive corruption scandals. And what about his first wife?
The lack of a good Xi Jinping biography is a window into the nature of authoritarianism and the profound differences between Russia under Putin and China under Xi. This is obvious to many but I still find it remarkable, so will remark.
Putin’s Russia, for all its murder and thuggishness, is a profoundly different political entity than Xi’s China. The nationwide protests in Russia this past week, the fact that millions of people were able to view Navalny’s video of Putin’s alleged mansion makes the case.
None of that is remotely possible in today’s China under Xi. A video viewable to ordinary Chinese people documenting Xi Jinping’s family wealth? Nationwide, coordinated protests? Not in China of 2021. This explains the difficulty in doing a good, honest, Xi biography.
I feel that, because I was part of a reporting team that DID move the bar on Xi’s biography, that I have something to add here. That 2012 story came at a price, altering my life and the lives of many others. END
Addendum. @jwassers , whose @TheAtlantic article sparked this conversation, pointed out the plight of the HK booksellers. They’re exhibit A on the dangers of writing about Xi. Here’s some detail on what they were writing from me and @AndrewJacobsNYT https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/business/international/in-china-books-that-make-money-and-enemies.html
