03-30- 2026 The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping with Joseph Torigian

The Party’s Interests Come First is the first biography of Xi Zhongxun, the father of Xi Jinping written in English. It is at once a sweeping story of the Chinese revolution and the first several decades of the People’s Republic of China and a deeply personal story about making sense of one’s own identity within a larger political context. Drawing on an array of new documents, interviews, diaries, and periodicals, Joseph Torigian vividly tells the life story of Xi Zhongxun, a man who spent his entire life struggling to balance his own feelings with the Party’s demands.