China and the rise of Xi Jinping

Join Michael Sheridan, a veteran China expert and former Sunday Times Far East correspondent, for an exploration of modern China through the life and rise of Xi Jinping, widely considered the world’s most powerful leader. In Xi’s China, power struggles, corruption, and purges unfold within a tightly controlled techno-security state. Xi exercises absolute authority with aims to challenge Western democracies and position China as a dominant global power. Drawing from decades of reporting and rare insights into China’s elite, Sheridan reveals a modern dynasty and a new “emperor” at the heart of the Chinese Communist Party.

Michael Sheridan has been reporting from China and Hong Kong since 1989, covering the country’s rise, the 1997 Hong Kong handover, and its ongoing struggle for democracy. His work has appeared in many leading publications. In 2021, he released The Gate to China, a widely praised history of Hong Kong, followed by The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping and His New China.

Howard Zhang is an expert in contemporary Chinese history, media and politics. He grew up in the early years of Deng’s “reform and open up” era. He left China for the West in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, and he has witnessed the transformation of China up close and personal. He later studied and worked in Canada in the 1990s, then moved to the UK and worked for the BBC World Service in London from January 2000 to August 2023, from a journalist and broadcaster to Head BBC News Chinese (2016-2023).