When Xi Jinping was 13 years old, at the height of China’s Cultural Revolution, he was denounced as a counter-revolutionary before a frenzied crowd in Beijing. Among his accusers was his own mother, forced to join in the taunting.
China’s future leader was targeted mostly because his father, a top Communist cadre, was purged by Chairman Mao Zedong. His fall dragged the family down too; Xi’s half-sister died, reportedly after intense abuse.
