The Party's Interests Come First

Joseph Torigian is Associate Professor at the School of International Service at American University and a Research Fellow at the Hoover History Lab at Stanford University.

"Magisterial.... Torigian uses memoirs, letters, interviews and archival sources inside and outside China to explore the details of his subject's life but it is the biographer's radical empathy and subtlety of mind that illuminates it." —Denis Staunton, Irish Times --- "The Party's Interests Come First provides a fascinating study of one man's life and legacy inside a political organization that often seemed to subsume individuals but was also constantly reshaped by their influence and the repercussions of their actions." —Maura Elizabeth Cunningham, The Wandering Life --- "The book is valuable not only for its portrait of its subject [Xi Zhongxun]—who was a major figure in the party's history in his own right—but also for its insights into his progeny [Xi Jinping], now the supreme leader. The worldview [Xi Jinping] learned from his father will affect not only 1.4bn Chinese people, but the whole of humanity." —The Economist --- "Torigian's detailed study of Xi Zhongxun is more than just a biography. It is a penetrating study of communist party history and a revelation of the way the party works and how individuals operate within the strict confines of single-party rule. The book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the party's culture and operations through to the present day." —Tony Saich, Chinese Studies International --- "[The Party's Interests Come First is a] state-of-the-art [analysis] of [a] senior Chinese [leader], commendable for [its] wide-ranging use of sources and attention to detail." —Ian Johnson, New York Review of Books --- "The richness of Torigian's research and writing make this work an exemplary study of Party history." —Rana Mitter, China Books Review --- "A towering achievement and required reading for those interested in China. Through exhaustive research and forensic detail, Joseph Torigian tells the gripping story of the man whose son now leads China and the party he helped build. Fascinating, revealing, and easily one of the best books on China in years." —Rush Doshi, Georgetown University --- "A fascinating dive into the contradictions and internal struggles that defined the life of one of the Chinese Communist Party's leading figures. Rich in detail and light on grand pronouncements, Torigian's book illuminates the complexity and tension inherent in Chinese leaders' efforts to define and remain loyal to the party against stiff and constantly changing political winds." —Jessica Chen Weiss, Johns Hopkins University --- "In China today, people often ask the question: how could Xi Zhongxun have had a son like this? The son in question is China's current president and Communist Party boss, Xi Jinping. Joseph Torigian's biography of Xi Zhongxun addresses this question only in its final chapter, but his rich and densely documented study of the father's life and career from the 1930s through the Tiananmen incident of 1989 is important in its own right—as an account of Xi Zhongxun's unshakable dedication to the Party and the revolution. Xi paid an enormous personal and political price for this dedication, but he remained loyal to the end. Torigian's fine study pays careful attention to Xi's personal and political life, and to the complex and ever-changing dynamics of politics in China's capital, adding important new texture to our understanding of China's political elite under Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and now Xi Jinping." —Joseph W. Esherick, University of California, San Diego --- "Joseph Torigian's trademark indefatigable pursuit of detailed information illuminates Xi Zhongxun's experience in working under Mao and Deng in a party culture that leadership should vest in a 'core leader' who would have to be obeyed, and where no significant force stood up to either of them. This mammoth study provides much to reflect on continuities from Mao to Xi Jinping through Deng." —Frederick C. Teiwes, University of Sydney --- "This brilliant biography of Xi Zhongxun, revolutionary politician and father of China's current leader, reveals the human dramas and intrigue behind the curtain in Chinese politics. Joseph Torigian is a prodigious researcher whose interviews with the Dalai Lama and others are worth the price of the book. A vividly written page-turner and a major scholarly accomplishment." —Susan Shirk, University of California, San Diego --- "Riveting.... What is striking about The Party's Interests Come First is the book's emphasis on understanding the emotional life of the elder Xi (in addition to its extensive archival research), and how a lifetime of enduring immense psychological pain and personal tragedy shaped the father's political convictions and may have sharpened those of his son [Xi Jinping.]" —Emily Feng, NPR --- "Joseph Torigian... contributes greatly to our understanding of China. The book, deeply researched, tells the story of a man torn between his humanity and his loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party, offering insights into the party's workings and the human suffering that shaped his son's governing style and conception of power." —Li Yuan, New York Times --- "This could easily end up as one of the twenty or thirty best biographies of all time.... It is a book about party history, and the life of its subject, Xi Zhongxun, is itself a story about the politically explosive nature of competing versions of the past." —Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution --- "Joseph Torigian, a young scholar of both Communist Chinese and Soviet politics, has written a masterly biography of Xi Zhongxun, the father of China's present-day president, Xi Jinping. The Party's Interests Come First is a scrupulously researched and keenly perceptive account of an important but, in the West, little-known historical figure." —Robert B. Zoellick, The Wall Street Journal