We Need To Talk About Xi What we need to know about the world’s most powerful leader

A short, urgent book that sorts the fact from the fiction about Xi Jinping - one of the world's most powerful political leaders - to truly understand how he came to power, his hold on China and why we should care.

Meet the most powerful leader in the world.

Chinese premier Xi Jinping graces our television screens and news headlines on a regular basis. But even after a decade in power, he remains shrouded in mystery.

From growing up with a father purged in Mao's Cultural Revolution and his mission to eradicate poverty, to his persecution of Uyghur Muslims and paranoia about being likened to Winnie-the-Pooh, Xi Jinping is a man obscured by caricatures. In this short, essential primer, historian and writer Michael Dillon unveils the character of Xi Jinping - arguably the world's most powerful man - to truly understand his grip on China, what he wants and how the West gets him wrong.

But this is not just the story of Xi; this is the story of today's largest economic powerhouse, which dives into the crux of the issue - what does Xi's leadership of China mean for the rest of the world, and what will he do next?

Michael Dillon is a historian and writer, who has studied and travelled in China for over 50 years. Currently Professor of History and Affiliate of the Lau China Institute at King's College London, he was previously the Director of the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies at Durham University and Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Asiatic Society, has commented on contemporary Chinese affairs for inter national media, and has been a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books.

His recent books include China: A Modern History, China in the Age of Xi Jinping, Zhou Enlai: the Enigma behind Chairman Mao and Deng Xiaoping: the Man Who Made Modern China.