Chinese Village Where Xi Jinping Fled Is Now a Monument to His Power
"The experience of being steeled by being sent to rural Liangjiahe was the wellspring of Xi Jinping’s thinking, mind-set
and feelings," Lei Pingsheng, another student from Beijing who was sent to work in the village, says in a new Chinese-language book, "Xi Jinping’s Seven Years as a Sent-Down Youth." The book has been heavily promoted by the party-run media before the congress.
"What Xi’s story says clearly is: He is a Communist born and bred,
but he also understands the common people." This story line resonates with many of the nearly 18 million Chinese who were also sent to the countryside by Mao in a mass effort to re-educate urban youth in the rustic virtues of China’s peasant majority, while defusing the fanaticism of the Red Guards.
Xia Baoqing said that Beijingers who weren’t sent to the countryside can’t handle nearly as much hardship as those of us who did,
Mr. Xi’s time in Liangjiahe was also more turbulent than portrayed in these sanitized versions of
history, according to less-guarded accounts that Mr. Xi gave before he became national leader.
In the run up, party newspapers and a new book have promoted the official line
that Mr. Xi is a strong leader with close ties to the common people because of his time in Liangjiahe.
" Mr. Xi said as he prepared to leave the village for university, according to the new book, "and I’ll
never forget it as long as I live." Adam Wu contributed research. that Liangjiahe gave me everything,
8, 2017
LIANGJIAHE, China — Almost 50 years after Xi Jinping first trudged into this village as a cold,
bewildered teenager, hundreds of political pilgrims retrace his footsteps every day.