“Xi Jinping started life as a princeling, the son of Xi Zhongxun, Mao’s propaganda chief. But in 1963 Xi senior was purged and banished to a factory in distant Henan province. During the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, the Xi house was attacked and burned, Xi’s sister Heping was killed or took her own life. His mother was forced to denounce her husband, who was dragged through the streets and pelted with filth. At 15, Xi too had to denounce his father. He was sent to live in a cave house in Shaanxi province, where he slept on a brick platform with five others. He escaped, was arrested and spent seven more years in the village he’d tried to get away from.”

John Simpson The punishment of history New Statesman 7^th May 2021 p31