Join us for a discussion with Joseph Torigian from American University in Washington, D.C., focusing on his new book, The Party’s Interests Come First. The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping.
Discover the story of Xi Zhongxun
In his latest book, Joseph Torigian examines the life and political career of Xi Zhongxun—one of the key figures in the Chinese Communist Party and father of China’s current leader, Xi Jinping. Drawing on his extensive research, Torigian will present not only the life and political career of Xi Zhongxun, but also offer a broader perspective on various aspects of the Party’s functioning over the decades. He will also discuss the connections between Xi Zhongxun’s political legacy and the policies of his son.
The Party's Interests Come First is the first biography of Xi Zhongxun 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.
Guest speaker
Joseph Torigian
Ph.D. / Associate Professor
Joseph Torigian is an Associate Professor at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C. He serves as a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and acts as a Center Associate of the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan. He was a Research Fellow at Stanford's Hoover History Lab, a Visiting Fellow at the China in the World Program at Australian National University, a Stanton Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton-Harvard's China and the World Program, a Postdoctoral (and Predoctoral) Fellow at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), and a Predoctoral Fellow at George Washington University's Institute for Security and Conflict Studies. He also worked as an IREX scholar at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and a Fulbright Scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai. Torigian is the author of Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao (Yale University Press) and The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping (Stanford University Press, 2025).
Moderator
Marek Hańderek
Ph.D. / Assistant Professor
Marek Hańderek is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of the Middle and Far East at Jagiellonian University in Kraków and a research fellow at the Historical Research Office of the Institute of National Remembrance. He has published one monograph, edited or co-edited three volumes, and authored numerous scholarly papers. His research interests include the Cold War in Europe and East Asia, contemporary Korean history, geopolitics, and intelligence studies.
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Welcome remarks
Marcin Jacoby, Ph.D. / Associate Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities in Warsaw
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Conversation with Joseph Torigiani
Moderator: Marek Hańderek
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Q&A Session
Organizer
Date and location
November 13, 2025, 18:00–20:00 CET (UTC+1)
SWPS University in Warsaw, Chodakowska 19/31
Contact
Piotr Machajek: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.