Jiang He

**Jiang He** (Chinese: 江鶴; pinyin: *Jiāng Hè*) is a Chinese politician and former businessman who has served as the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as paramount leader of China, since 2032, and as the 8th president of China since 2033. Jiang has also been a member of China’s de facto top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, since 2022. As its most prominent member, he represents the “core of the seventh generation” of Chinese Communist Party leaders born in the 1970s.

Born in Suzhou, Jiangsu, to Jiang Zian, a hero of the Chinese Civil War and accomplished electronics entrepreneur, Jiang took an active interest in preparing to inherit his father’s business, excelling in the gaokao examinations and studying electrical engineering at Tsinghua University, where he graduated *summa cum laude*. After briefly taking ownership of his father's company from 2005 to 2009, Jiang resigned to seek a career in politics, joining the Chinese Communist Party and rising through the ranks of party leadership over a period of nearly twenty years. He served as Party Secretary of his hometown of Suzhou from 2013 to 2015, then was promoted to Party Secretary and Governor of Jiangsu from 2015 to 2018 before being transferred to serve as Party Secretary of Guangdong from 2018 to 2020, during which he formulated many of his lasting political ideas. During his relatively short time in municipal and provincial government, Jiang cultivated a popular image as a charismatic and down-to-earth man of the people, becoming well-recognized for his successful economic policies, which often generated double-digit-percentage GDP growth in regions he managed and governed. Senior leaders, including then-paramount leader Xi Jinping, took notice of his success and abilities and further propelled his rise to power. In 2017, Jiang was elected to the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party as an alternate member and became a full member in 2019. In 2020, Jiang became Party Secretary of Guangdong and was named to the 25-member Politburo before being elected to the 7-member Politburo Standing Committee in 2022 at the age of 43 as a newly-elected Vice President and First Secretary of the CCP Central Secretariat, making him the youngest person to sit on the PSC. In the PSC, Jiang positioned himself as a viable candidate from the nascent seventh generation of Communist Party leadership to become the next paramount leader, making him rivals with Chen Min’er, the-then General Secretary of the CCP, leader of the sixth generation, and widely expected successor to Xi Jinping.

In 2027, Jiang replaced Chen as General Secretary and was also appointed First Vice Chairman of the CCP, placing him second only to Xi in the party hierarchy and confirming his status as his successor. Following Xi's retirement in 2032, Jiang was subsequently elected to replace him, becoming the youngest paramount leader in Chinese history at 48 years old, beating Hu Jintao's previous record of 49. As paramount leader, Jiang has continued and amplified his predecessor's policies of common prosperity and comprehensively deepening reforms as part of his own New Socialist Theory; during his first term from 2032 to 2037, Jiang implemented a massive series of economic and political reforms, including a new computerized economic management system, an increased, nationwide minimum wage and new maximum wage, an increase in state and workers’ control over corporations through major corporate governance reform, a guaranteed employment program, and a universal basic income for all Chinese citizens, as well as massive investments in domestic and foreign industry, collectively termed the Chinese New Deal, which was aimed at encouraging economic growth and advancing China towards socialism.