--- title: Xi Jinping Is on the 2022 TIME 100 List description: Find out why Xi Jinping is one of the 100 most influential people of 2022. canonical: https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177685/xi-jinping-leaders/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-05-23T10:17:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-21T07:21:56.931Z og:title: Xi Jinping: The 100 Most Influential People of 2022 og:description: Find out why Xi Jinping is on this year’s list og:url: https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177685/xi-jinping-leaders/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb706e34876e0082c/698a320cd075339654e6cda1/Xi-Jinping-time-100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Xi Jinping: The 100 Most Influential People of 2022 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Xi Jinping: The 100 Most Influential People of 2022 twitter:description: Find out why Xi Jinping is on this year’s list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb706e34876e0082c/698a320cd075339654e6cda1/Xi-Jinping-time-100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- May 23, 2022 # Xi Jinping by Jeffrey Wasserstrom  China, 2021-11-05\. Reinterpretation of a photographic capture of the official portrait of Xi Jinping, President for life of the People s Republic of China. . Photograph by Jimmy Beunardeau / Hans Lucas. China, 2021-11-05\. Detournement d une captation photographique du portrait officiel de Xi Jinping, President a vie de la Republique Populaire de Chine. Photographie de Jimmy Beunardeau / Hans Lucas. China, 2021-11-05\. Reinterpretation of a photographic capture of the official portrait of Xi Jinping, President for life of the People s Republic of China. . Photograph by Jimmy Beunardeau / Hans Lucas. China, 2021-11-05\. Detournement d une captation photographique du portrait officiel de Xi Jinping, President a vie de la Republique Populaire de Chine. Photographie de Jimmy Beunardeau / Hans Lucas.Jimmy Beunardeau—Redux/Hans Lucas [Xi Jinping has had a profound impact](https://time.com/6077358/china-communist-party-centenary-xi-jinping/) domestically and globally since ascending to power as Communist Party General Secretary in 2012, soon after which he became President and since has developed the biggest Chinese personality cult since Mao’s. The easiest way to describe this impact used to be by listing things he did, from launching the [Belt and Road Initiative](https://time.com/5578514/china-xi-jinping-belt-road-corruption-debt/)—a massive infrastructure investment strategy to expand China’s influence globally—to starting a crackdown on corruption and ratcheting up one on civil society with the secondary goal of eliminating political rivals. He also did away with a constitutional provision aimed at preventing rulers for life and, after a cover-up of a new virus’s spread caused global harm, implemented a [zero-COVID policy](https://time.com/6139772/china-zero-covid-policy/) that succeeded in minimizing the disease’s domestic spread but has locked millions in their homes. To assess Xi’s particular impact in 2022, however, it’s worth highlighting four things he has not done but might have: reconsidered the zero-COVID strategy that has been criticized by the World Health Organization chief as “not sustainable”; reversed course on Xinjiang, the site of horrific human-rights abuses; distanced himself from a warmongering Vladimir Putin; and, of course, named a successor. _Wasserstrom is the Chancellor’s Professor of History at UC Irvine and author of_ The Oxford History of Modern China ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177685/xi-jinping-leaders/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177685/xi-jinping-leaders/"},"headline":"Xi Jinping","datePublished":"2022-05-23T10:17:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:21:56.931Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177685/xi-jinping-leaders/","keywords":["TIME 100","franchise","TIME100 2022"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb706e34876e0082c/698a320cd075339654e6cda1/Xi-Jinping-time-100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb706e34876e0082c/698a320cd075339654e6cda1/Xi-Jinping-time-100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"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":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177685/xi-jinping-leaders/","name":"Xi Jinping"}}]}] ```