Michael Sheridan in conversation with Julian Baggini The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping and His New China

About

Chris Patten, the last Governor of Hong Kong notes that: 'Michael Sheridan is one of the best informed and wisest writers on China'.In this talk, he presents an eye-opening portrait of Xi Jinping, the man who presides over 1.4 billion people and the second largest economy on earth. Born a 'princeling' to one of Communist China's ruling families, the young Xi was exiled to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. He fought his way back to the top by stealth, privilege and guile. In 2012, following the spectacular fall of his rival Bo Xilai, Xi Jinping became the leader of China.Sheridan takes the listener from the poor, isolated country of Xi's youth to the military and economic superpower of today. In Xi's new China, family mafias struggle for power amid murder, corruption and sex scandals as ministers and generals vanish in purges. No one is safe in his techno-security state. Xi is an absolute ruler whose word is law on everything from war and peace to the ruthless campaign against Covid-19. He aims to dominate world trade, to defeat Western democracy and to make China the supreme power in the East. A loner and a risk-taker, he is the most consequential leader of our time.Drawing on intimate stories from the closed world of China's leading families and two decades of first-hand reporting, Michael Sheridan sheds new light on the history and politics of China. This presentation reveals that behind the faade of the Chinese Communist Party there is a modern dynasty and a new emperor.Michael Sheridan first reported from Hong Kong and China in June 1989 and later served as the Far East correspondent of the Sunday Times for 20 years, covering the rise of China, the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 and the citys struggle for democracy. Earlier, he worked for Reuters, ITN and the Independent, reporting on war in the Middle East, global diplomacy and European politics, with postings in Rome, Beirut and Jerusalem. His work has also appeared in the Spectator, Tablet, Vanity Fair and the Hong Kong Economic Journal. In 2021 he published The Gate to China, a critically acclaimed history of Hong Kong.

Dr Julian Baggini is the author, co-author or editor of over 20 books including The Great Guide: What David Hume Can Teach Us about Being Human and Living Well, The Godless Gospel, How The World Thinks, The Virtues of the Table and The Ego Trick and The Edge of Reason. He was the founding editor of The Philosophers Magazine and has written for numerous newspapers and magazines, as well as for the think tanks The Institute of Public Policy Research, Demos and Counterpoint. He is Academic Director of the Royal institute of Philosophy and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent.A Q&A Session will follow.