--- title: China's Most Powerful Man: Xi Jinping description: His legacy is still undetermined canonical: https://time.com/4050419/xi-jinping-china-president/ author: Joyce Lee article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-25T19:27:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:17:05.633Z article:section: History og:title: Meet China's Most Powerful Man: Xi Jinping og:description: He is one of the most powerful leaders in modern Chinese history og:url: https://time.com/4050419/xi-jinping-china-president/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9280796b222903c3/698862b3cd1bba1f4a6fd133/gettyimages-179480220.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Arrival of Heads of Delegations for G20 Leaders Summit og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet China's Most Powerful Man: Xi Jinping twitter:description: He is one of the most powerful leaders in modern Chinese history twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9280796b222903c3/698862b3cd1bba1f4a6fd133/gettyimages-179480220.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # China's Most Powerful Man: Xi Jinping by [Joyce Lee](https://time.com/author/joyce-lee/) ## Joyce Lee Sep 25, 2015 7:27 PM UTC  In this handout image provided by Ria Novosti, President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping arrives in Russia ahead of the G20 summit on September 4, 2013 in St. Petersburg, Russia. In this handout image provided by Ria Novosti, President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping arrives in Russia ahead of the G20 summit on September 4, 2013 in St. Petersburg, Russia.Handout—Getty Images by [Joyce Lee](https://time.com/author/joyce-lee/) ## Joyce Lee Sep 25, 2015 7:27 PM UTC President Xi Jinping might become one of the most consequential leaders in Chinese history. In a rare concentration of power, Xi is the country’s military chief, president, and the leader of the Chinese Communist Party. When Parliament elected Xi in 2012, he won 99.87% of the vote—only four out of 3,000 members voted against him. But Mao Zedong, the “father” of the People’s Republic of China, and Deng Xiaoping, the architect of the country’s capitalist economy, still overshadow Xi. His legacy remains uncertain as China’s recent economic turmoil and the Tianjin explosions reveal potential problems for his governance. Watch the video above to learn about China’s leaders through history. China's Most Powerful Man: Xi Jinping ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4050419/xi-jinping-china-president/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4050419/xi-jinping-china-president/"},"headline":"China's Most Powerful Man: Xi Jinping","datePublished":"2015-09-25T19:27:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:17:05.633Z","description":"His legacy still hangs in the air","url":"https://time.com/4050419/xi-jinping-china-president/","keywords":["History","China","Xi Jinping","yuan","Communism"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9280796b222903c3/698862b3cd1bba1f4a6fd133/gettyimages-179480220.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joyce Lee","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joyce-lee/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9280796b222903c3/698862b3cd1bba1f4a6fd133/gettyimages-179480220.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Arrival of Heads of Delegations for G20 Leaders Summit","caption":"Arrival of Heads of Delegations for G20 Leaders Summit","creditText":"Handout—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4050419/xi-jinping-china-president/","name":"China's Most Powerful Man: Xi Jinping"}}]}] ```