Setting his eyes on the next 100 years, Xi seizes the chance to lead China to greater power

One hundred years since the founding of China’s Communist Party — which it says was born out of a secret meeting on a boat — President Xi Jinping now stands a chance to lead the country to becoming the world’s largest economy. Achieving that level of growth will require China to propel itself past looming challenges: the so-called middle income trap, lack of innovation and a rapidly aging population. That’s according to analysts, mostly looking in from abroad.

For Xi, his eyes are already on the next hundred years, and an unfulfilled dream of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” which he reiterated at centenary celebrations for the party this week. Xi also holds the top political position of the general secretary of the ruling Communist Party’s central committee and heads China’s military commission.

“He has iron in his soul, more than [former President] Hu Jintao, who ascended the ranks without experiencing the trials and tribulations that Xi endured,” the late founder of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, told American foreign policy experts Graham Allison and Robert D. Blackwill in 2012, just before Xi officially became president.

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