XI Jinping - Personal Life

Personal Life

Xi first married Ke Lingling, the daughter of Ke Hua, an ambassador to Britain in the early 1980s. Little is known about their marriage other than that it ended in divorce within a few years. Xi married the famous Chinese folk singer Peng Liyuan (彭丽媛) in 1987. Peng Liyuan, a household name in China, was much better known to the public than Xi until his political elevation. The couple frequently lived apart due largely to their separate professional lives. They are sometimes considered China's emerging star political couple. They have a daughter named Xi Mingze (习明泽), who enrolled as a freshman at Harvard University in the autumn of 2010 under a pseudonym.

Xi holds a bachelor degree in chemical engineering and a doctorate in political science.

Peng described Xi as hardworking and down-to-earth. "When he comes home, I've never felt as if there's some leader in the house. In my eyes, he's just my husband."

Xi was described in a 2011 The Washington Post article by those who know him as "pragmatic, serious, cautious, hard-working, down to earth and low-key." Xi was also described as a good hand at problem solving and "seemingly uninterested in the trappings of high office." He is also known to love Hollywood films like Saving Private Ryan and The Departed. The Guardian noted that "perhaps more surprisingly" he also praised the independent film maker Jia Zhangke.

Members of Xi's extended family have substantial business interests, although there is no evidence that they have been assisted by Xi's political position. The Chinese government censored this information, going as far as blocking Bloomberg's website after they reported it.