When Xi Jinping tells you who he is, believe him — interview with @josephtorigian.bsky.social in which he draws on the text of Xi's speeches and writings to elucidate his views on the CCP, history, security, and more.

A little personal news... very happy that American University just named me a Provost Associate Professor. Thanks so much to AU! www.american.edu/provost/comm...

Sorry everyone... this AU event will have to be rescheduled for the fall. BUT, I am giving a book talk on Party's Interests at Georgetown on April 16, hosted by the wonderful Ning Leng uschinadialogue.georgetown.edu/events/the-p...

New @wsj.com piece by @austinramzy.bsky.social on Xi Jinping and the Iran war, with thoughts from Steve Tsang and me www.wsj.com/world/for-xi...

Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics by me & @cooleyoneurasia.bsky.social is now published by OUP in the USA (rest of world soon) If you are interested in why you see so many dictatorships & illiberal leaders influencing world politics then this is the book for you.

In Austin? Tomorrow (Tuesday) I’ll be giving a talk on Party’s Interests at UT Austin. Thanks @sheenagreitens.bsky.social for the invite! asiapolicy.utexas.edu/events/the-p...

If you're looking for an AI, South Park-esque version of my book The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping - with a long musical segment - this is the video for you (with apparently 2 more to come) www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Jr...

In DC on March 31? Come to a discussion of The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun. Panelists include Patrick Jackson, Evan Medeiros, and @katiestallard.bsky.social rd.bsky.social. Thrilled Mike Froman of @cfr.org will moderate. www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launc...

Big thanks to Simon Sebag Montefiore for his kind words about Party's Interests Come First in @thetimes.com. Coincidentally I read Palace Walk in 2025 and also loved it... www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-r...

Can’t wait to read this. Official release is April 14 so mark your calendars or pre-order.

At @chinabooksreview.com, @josephtorigian.bsky.social writes on a new book about Peng Zhen that tells "the story of a man who helped destroy a legal system that might have protected him, and whose own belief in his intimacy with Mao led to self-destructive overconfidence."

New from me today: for @chinabooksreview.com, I review a magisterial biography of Chinese Communist Party leader Peng Zhen by Taiwanese scholar Yen-Lin Chung. I write about revisionist history, the study of elite politics, and the late Roderick MacFarquhar.

New podcast: I spoke to @soasuni.bsky.social Duncan Hewitt about The Party's Interests and recent developments in Chinese politics soas-china-institute.buzzsprout.com/1669327/epis...

Big thanks to Kelly Hammond and @ruslanyn.bsky.social for hosting me for a talk on Party’s Interests at University of Arkansas!

I spoke to @nytimes.com @lilkuo.bsky.social about how Xi Jinping uses party history and rectification campaigns from the CCP's past to achieve his political goals.

In Denver? Suisheng Zhao will host me for a book talk on The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping, on February 11 crimsonconnect.du.edu/KOR/rsvp_boo...

I'm happy to be quoted in this long read from the @financialtimes.com but in general it's a great overview of the tension between Takaichi's popularity and what's waiting when the campaign is over. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Big thanks to @usni.org magazine Proceedings for publishing this very generous review of The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping www.usni.org/magazines/pr...

New podcast I did about Xi Jinping. The chat happened before the Zhang Youxia Incident, but it’s a rare China podcast in which Pontiac Vibes and Stroh’s come up. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

Xi stürzt seinen mächtigsten Soldaten. Vielleicht der Letzte, der sich traute, ihm zu widersprechen. Unser @spiegel.de Report über Chinas größte Führungskrise seit Jahren. Thanks to Dennis Wilder, @josephtorigian.bsky.social, @ktristantang.bsky.social for weighing in www.spiegel.de/ausland/chin...

If you're near Princeton, I'm giving a book talk on Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping, on February 2 politics.princeton.edu/events/josep...

Thanks Simon Miles for hosting me for a book talk on the Party’s Interests Come First at Duke and all the students for coming out despite the cold and snow

Thanks Simon Miles for hosting me for a book talk on the Party’s Interests Come First at Duke and all the students for coming out despite the cold and snow

Spoke to @nytimes.com about the Xi-Zhang family connections, but I had to be frank that we actually know little about the Xi Jinping/Zhang Youxia relationship. (brief thread) www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/w...

My initial reaction:

Until I'm able to write about the latest PLA purges, I've updated this chart showing the CMC's span of control during Xi's tenure. His reorganizations stretched the CMC and then his purges broke it. It was a fundamentally different organization even before the latest purge, and now the future

A big thanks to Chris Mittelstaedt for writing this very thoughtful review of Party's Interests for @chinaquarterly.bsky.social. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

It was great to have a full house for yesterday's event with @jkynge.bsky.social, @josephtorigian.bsky.social and Yu Jie, chaired by Ben Bland, to discuss China's vision for a new world order. You can watch the recording here ⤵️ www.chathamhouse.org/events/all/s...

Delighted to see my chapter on Historical Memory in Hong Kong in The Sage Handbook of Interpreting Chinese History in print! Truly honored to have my essay published alongside such fantastic authors, and extremely grateful to the brilliant editors for their hard work uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/th...

Thank you so much to La Repubblica's Filippo Santelli for interviewing me about "The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping" (in Itailan) www.repubblica.it/venerdi/2026...

In light of recently released video of the trial of Chinese general Xu Qinxian, Prof. @josephtorigian.bsky.social revisits the events of Tiananmen Square for @warontherocks.bsky.social https://warontherocks.com/2026/01/obedience-ambiguity-and-punishment-the-chinese-military-at-tiananmen-revisited/

For War on the Rocks, @josephtorigian.bsky.social writes about the recently leaked video of Xu Qinxian's post-Tiananmen trial and what we can learn—about the Party-state in both 1989 and today—from watching it.

New from me: I write about what we can learn from the remarkable leaked trial video of a Chinese general punished for his behavior before the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown @warontherocks.bsky.social warontherocks.com/2026/01/obed...

Nie Weiping has died. A famous Go player, he was a close friend of Xi Jinping when they were teenagers. Nie was one of the three young boys I wrote about in "Party's Interests Come First" in this paragraph, which is based on Nie's memoirs (it was a third boy that was beaten)

Great book. "Its pages are suffused with love for her mother and for the myriad anonymous Chinese sources and academics who help Chang in researching her historical projects — and suffered blowback as a result." www.npr.org/2026/01/13/g...

I spoke to @reuters.com about Chinese foreign policy and the Mark Carney trip to Beijing www.reuters.com/world/china/...

Thanks so much to @tomstevenson.bsky.social for writing this thoughtful review of The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping for London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk

"China’s Church Divided: Bishop Louis Jin and the Post-Mao Catholic Revival"⁠ by Paul Mariani is one of my favorite recent books on China. Very much looking forward to listening to this Pekingology @csis.org podcast with Henrietta Levin www.csis.org/podcasts/pek...

In DC? Come to a discussion of The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun @AU_SIS. Panelists include Patrick Jackson, Evan Medeiros, and @katiestallard.bsky.social. Thrilled Mike Froman of @cfr.org, where I just became a senior fellow, will moderate. www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launc...

Thanks so much to @josephtorigian.bsky.social for inviting me to moderate his book talk at Three Cats in Clawson, MI last weekend—as I told the audience, I was excited to see THE PARTY'S INTERESTS COME FIRST enter the world and am glad that others have appreciated the book as much as I did!

Article with @jimgoldgeier.bsky.social "NATO Did Not Cause Putin’s Imperial War” is now available for free @twqgw.bsky.social website: twq.elliott.gwu.edu See 🧵below for preview.

Great crowd yesterday for my hometown book talk in Clawson, Michigan. Thanks so much to @mauracunningham.bsky.social for doing such a terrific job moderating!

Thanks so much to DC's Jifeng Books for naming The Party's Interests Come First a top book of 2025. On January 31, I'll be moderating a book talk there with Benjamin Nathans on his wonderful To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement

Really excited about this one: a special hometown discussion, with the terrific @mauracunningham.bsky.social, of "The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping," in Clawson, Michigan on January 4 www.eventbrite.com/e/book-event...

The Party's Interests Come First by Joseph Torigian @josephtorigian.bsky.social (2024) - this biography of Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhongxun, has justifiably won lots of plaudits. Not only a great insight to the man, but lots of Party history here also!! 3/6

Big thank you to @emilymatson.bsky.social for this very thoughtful review of "The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping" in Studies in Intelligence www.cia.gov/resources/cs...

A huge thank you to @admiralstav.bsky.social for naming "The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping" one of his three favorite books of 2025 @opinion.bloomberg.com

Thanks to Giorgio Cuscito of the Italian magazine Limes for speaking to me about The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping (in italiano) www.limesonline.com/rivista/ered...

I went on @liyuan6.bsky.social @bumingbaipod.bsky.social to talk about Xu Qinxian, the commander of the 38th Group Army who was removed during the Tiananmen Square protests. A video of his trial was recently leaked online (in Chinese) (中文） youtu.be/Y9yaQuV1rUc?...