Analysing Xi Jinping: Kevin Rudd and the Challenge of China in Our Time

In his new book On Xi Jinping - How Xi's Marxist Nationalism is Shaping China and the World​ (Oxford University Press, 2025), Kevin Rudd analyses the ideological worldview driving Chinese behaviour both domestically and on the world stage — that of President Xi Jinping, who now holds near-total control over the Chinese Communist Party and is now in effect president-for-life.

Rudd argues that Xi's worldview differs significantly from those of the leaders who preceded him, and that this ideological shift is reflected in the real world of Chinese policy and behaviour.

Focusing on China's domestic politics, political economy, and foreign policy, Rudd characterises Xi Jinping's ideological framing of the world as "Marxist-Leninist nationalism", to show that Xi has moved China from a relatively market-oriented economy to a highly mercantilist and state-dominated one, and from a cautious to an ambitious military and geopolitical stance.

Drawing on earlier works such as Professor John Fitzgerald's Cadre Country: How China became the Chinese Communist Party​ (UNSW {Press, 2022) and Surveillance State: Inside China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control​ (St Martin's Press, New York, 2022) by Josh Chin and Liza Lin, Paul Monk will cast a critical eye over On Xi Jinping, and evaluate how this detailed and scholarly work contributes to our knowledge of how Xi is transforming both China and the international order, and, most importantly, why.

To download the flyer please click here.

AIIA Victoria gratefully acknowledges the Walter Mangold Trust Fund for their support of our young members.

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