The Mother, the Son and the War

World War Two forged the woman who forged Xi Jinping |  |   
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#### News & Analysis | September 3rd, 2025  
  
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|  **Good morning.** On Wednesday Xi Jinping presided over a Beijing military parade celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Japanese Imperial Army’s surrender in China. Chances are that while doing so, he spared more than a few thoughts for his centenarian mother, Qi Xin. Eighty-eight years ago she had witnessed a much more humiliating spectacle, as Japanese troops marched in to take control of the city.  For Qi Xin the eight-year war against the Japanese was the most formative experience of her life. She would eventually make her way to the Chinese Communist Party’s northwestern basecamp in Yan’an and marry Xi Jinping’s much better known father, Xi Zhongxun, another dedicated revolutionary who went on to hold senior government and Party posts in the 1950s and 1980s.  In this article Lucy Hornby examines the life and legacies of Qi Xin. She played an influential role in promoting the legacy of her late husband, who even at the height of his career was a weathervane responding to the dictates of his far more powerful colleagues, and paving the way for her powerful son. For more, please follow the link below.   
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Xi Jinping takes a walk with his mother, Qi Xin. _Credit:Xinhua News Agency_  
|  **The Mother, the Son and the War** As Xi Jinping reviewed his troops on Wednesday in Beijing, his 101 year-old mother, Qi Xin, was with him on the Tiananmen rostrum in spirit. Lucy Hornby looks at the life and times of Xi’s often overlooked mother.   
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