Xi Jinping succeeded Hu Jintao as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, and later in 2016 was proclaimed the CCP's 4th leadership core, following Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin.

His rule is often described as an authoritarian leader by political and academic observers, while his tenure has included an increase of censorship and mass surveillance, deterioration in human rights, including the internment of a million Uyghurs in Xinjiang (which some observers have described as part of a genocide), a cult of personality developing around Xi, and the removal of term limits for the presidency in 2018.

In economic policy, Xi has prioritized poverty alleviation and creating common prosperity to reduce disparities in wealth.

Xi's administration seeks to implement common prosperity in part through its education policy, including through drastically curtailing the tutoring industry and reducing homework burdens.

[5]: 141  Although China has promoted its national champion companies since the Jiang Zemin administration,[6]: 158  it has done so particularly strongly since 2017, especially in the technology sector.

[10]: 228  At the end of that year, China signed major free trade agreements with the European Union as well as fifteen different Asia-Pacific countries.

[4]: 155  Schools must also promote health by requiring outdoor physical education classes daily and providing eye examinations twice per term.

[4]: 188 In his effort to build additional institutional capacity for foreign policy coordination, Xi Jinping created the National Security Commission (NSC), which absorbed the NSLG.

"[13]: 3 During the Xi Jinping era, the Community of Common Destiny has become China's most important foreign relations formulation.

[14]: 42  For example, during diplomatic visits to other countries, Xi has praised the contributions of people like Claire Lee Chennault, Norman Bethune, Dawarkanath Kotnis, and Soviet pilots.

[15]: 103 During Xi's administration, China has often extended state-backed loans for energy and infrastructure-building in exchange for natural resources in regions like Central Asia and Africa.

"[14]: 64  In his discourse on the community of shared future, Xi cites the third century scholar Chen Shou's saying that "delicious soup is made by combining different ingredients.