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Book talk: The Party’s Interests Come First by Joseph Torigian (📍🇳🇱 & Online)
📖 The Party’s Interests Come First: Joseph Torigian on Xi Zhongxun and the Roots of Xi Jinping’s Power
📅 Date: Monday, October 13, 2025
🕓 Time: TBC
📍 Location: Leiden, Netherlands 🇳🇱
🌐 Format: In-person
🎟️ Registration: Free with registration
🏷️ Description:
Join China expert Joseph Torigian for a timely talk on his new book, The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping—the first English-language biography of Xi Zhongxun. Drawing on newly uncovered sources, Torigian traces the dramatic life of the revolutionary and high-ranking official who shaped both the Chinese Communist Party and the worldview of his son, Xi Jinping.
This event will explore how Xi Zhongxun’s political experiences and personal convictions continue to influence China’s current leadership and illuminate key dynamics within the Party today.
🗣️ The talk will be followed by comments from Prof. Dr. Frank Pieke (LeidenAsiaCentre), one of Europe’s leading scholars on the Chinese Communist Party.
🥂 A networking reception will follow the discussion.
📚 About the Book:
A sweeping account of China’s revolutionary past and the personal story of a man caught between conviction and conformity, The Party’s Interests Come First is both political biography and historical insight. With rare access to official documents, interviews, and diaries, Torigian paints a revealing portrait of how the CCP maintains loyalty, imposes control, and transmits power across generations. Get the book here.
👤 About the Speaker:
Dr. Joseph Torigian is Associate Professor at American University and a Research Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. His interdisciplinary work spans Chinese and Russian politics, authoritarian regimes, and elite power struggles.
💬 Discussant:
Prof. Dr. Frank Pieke is a leading expert on Chinese governance and Party structure. He currently teaches at the East Asia Institute, National University of Singapore.
📖 Topics:
Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, Political History, Xi Zhongxun, Elite Politics, Party Loyalty, Political Biography, Authoritarianism, China Studies