FREEMAN CHAIR IN CHINA STUDIES, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

“The most comprehensive analysis of Xi to date — one that will set the bar for future studies of Xi’s governing philosophy…. This singular work, which emerged from Rudd’s doctoral thesis at Oxford, brings with it a tactile ability to view Xi through multiple lenses: politician, bureaucrat, coalition-builder, grand strategist.”

The Wire China and China Books Review

SECRETARY OF STATE AND NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

“With his profound understanding of Chinese politics and culture, coupled with extensive diplomatic experience, there is no one better positioned to explain Xi Jinping and his worldview than my friend, Kevin Rudd. Kevin offers a detailed analysis of Xi’s vision for China that draws on historical records, economic policy, and Xi’s own writings. On Xi Jinping is essential reading for scholars and all who seek to understand how Xi’s personal ideology is shaping China’s future and, if he has his way, reconstituting the international order.”

OUP

DIRECTOR, FAIRBANK CENTER FOR CHINESE STUDIES, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

“It’s a terrific book and I recommend it highly… [Rudd demonstrates] this volume of party documents, speeches and so forth. It lays it out there, and we should actually do our homework and dig into all this and not necessarily [accept that Xi is] hiding some secret agenda.”

IOP

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

“Kevin Rudd cements himself as one of the most important observers of contemporary China. Through deep textual analysis and scholarship, Rudd presents a penetrating analysis of the ideological forces driving China’s evolution under Xi Jinping. What emerges is a complex portrait of an individual, system, and country that advances scholarship on modern China. Engaging, intelligible, and trenchant in its analysis, this is an essential book.”

OUP

ST LEE CHAIR IN US-ASIA RELATIONS, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL

“Xi Jinping is one of the most important, but most unknowable leaders of the modern world. Kevin Rudd uses meticulous readings of Chinese sources and deep knowledge of Beijing politics to interpret Xi's thinking in a fascinating and revealing way that is both deeply scholarly and informed by Rudd's own understanding of leadership."

OUP

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

“As a foreign policy practitioner, a scholar, a Chinese language speaker, and a former world leader himself, Kevin Rudd is uniquely well placed to answer the question of what Xi Jinping actually believes. He does so brilliantly by drawing on Chinese primary sources, in-depth research, and a lifetime of experience dealing with China's leadership.”

OUP

DIRECTOR, BELFER CENTER FOR SCIENCE & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL

“In this book, Kevin Rudd provides all who care about peace a huge service. Drawing on his extraordinary knowledge of China and the Chinese system, Rudd reveals a side of Xi Jinping only comprehensible through his extensive ideological writings—giving us all unique insights into a man upon whom much of the future depends and helping scholars and policymakers alike better understand Xi’s motives and anticipate his actions. A remarkable read!”

OUP

DIRECTOR, CHINA STRATEGY INITIATIVE AND CV STARR SENIOR FELLOW FOR ASIA STUDIES, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

“The timing of this book could not be better. The book is an unparallelled deep dive into Xi’s thinking that spans more than fifteen chapters and more than 200 pages of footnotes and sources that are invaluable for scholars and nerd like myself. Many of us in the community [of Sinologists] have been waiting eagerly for this publication and the book is already having an impact on the debate.”

CFR

FORMER CHAIR, FOREIGN AFFAIRS SELECT COMMITTEE, HOUSE OF COMMONS

“The mistake many have made is not to read what China’s most powerful leader in decades has actually said. Kevin Rudd has. Australia’s former prime minister has been studying China since he was a student in Taiwan almost 50 years ago, and has built up an understanding of both what Beijing says and what it means. For those of us less fluent in Mandarin or Marxism, that makes his new book essential reading.”

UK Daily Telegraph

FOREIGN EDITOR, ‘THE AUSTRALIAN’

“Rudd has written a book of singular importance… It’s distinctive, and therefore intensely valuable, and a classically Rudd enterprise because it involved reading, analysing and putting into Chinese and communist context every significant thing Xi has ever said or written… Almost every page of this book contains deep insight into the nature of China and the Chinese Communist Party.”

The Australian

INAUGURAL CIVIL FUTURE FELLOW

“On Xi Jinping is a highly impressive tome – scholarly, authoritative, and surprisingly lucid for such a dense endeavour. The pages and pages of exegesis dazzlingly overlay one another, argument building upon argument, until their sheer weight and momentum make his core thesis at least appear incontrovertible.”

The Article

DAEWOO PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL

“Rudd's superb analysis provides the reader with a comprehensive guide to Xi's thinking on domestic policy and global affairs. Rudd takes Xi's words seriously and teases out the consequences: a politics and economics that has moved to the left and a foreign policy that has turned to a form of rightist nationalism. Rudd encapsulates these processes with the phrase 'Marist-Leninist Nationalism.' This work is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding where China has come from, where it is heading and the consequences for all of us."

OUP

EDITOR, ‘CHINA HERITAGE’

“Public servant, prime minister, diplomat, scholar—Kevin Rudd's resume is also a stellar CV for the elite caste of scholar-bureaucrats that managed the Chinese empire for over a millennium. On Xi Jinping focusses the experience of a political practitioner engaged with China since his teenage years to analyse Xi Jinpingâs Party Empire and its global ambitions. Rudd also attempts the seemingly impossible by offering words of guidance and hope in this darkling age."

OUP

CHIEF FOREIGN AFFAIRS COLUMNIST, ‘THE FINANCIAL TIMES’

“The author is a former Australian prime minister who has spent decades studying China. He argues that Xi Jinping is driven by ideology to an extent that is not fully appreciated in the west. In a book that is both entertaining and scholarly, Rudd sets out the key elements of that ideology — in particular nationalism, statist economics and a reassertion of party control.”

FT Best Books of 2024

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, O.P. JINDAL GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

“This book by Kevin Rudd, who channels his years of experience of working with China, is an essential read. The author conducts a detailed and nuanced reading of all the texts, speeches and directives by Xi and concludes that the Chinese leader is determined to strengthen ideology, change global norms in China’s favour, and leave a legacy of his thoughts as the driving mandate for the Communist Party of China.”

Business Standard

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE PROFESSOR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

"How has Xi Jinping's 'Marxist-Nationalism' shaped China and its relations with the world? No one is better placed than Kevin Rudd to answer these questions, and he does so convincingly in these illuminating pages. This is an essential book for everyone interested in the future of China."

OUP

FORMER GLOBAL CHINA EDITOR, ‘THE FINANCIAL TIMES’

“A mini vogue among Sinologists in recent years to characterise Xi as a transactional pragmatist with few — if any — ideological convictions is erroneous, Rudd’s book makes clear… Rudd’s book adds a wealth of context to what animates Xi’s grim determination.”

Financial Times

ASIA INSTITUTE INDUSTRY FELLOW, GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY

“Kevin Rudd’s warning, issued rivetingly in his new book, [is] that the global political stage is set for an unprecedented battle led by Xi Jinping’s Beijing for influence, for ideas and narratives, and fundamentally for power…. Discourse-power is crucial for ‘Xi’s Marxist Nationalism’, as Rudd rightly points out.”

The Australian

FELLOW ON CHINESE POLITICS, ASIA SOCIETY POLICY INSTITUTE CENTER FOR CHINA ANALYSIS

“Good books address great debates. This one speaks to the relative importance of agency versus structure in human affairs… We cannot peer inside the mind of Xi Jinping. But we can learn from what he says and does. Kevin Rudd shows how taking Xi’s ideology seriously helps us to better understand Chinese politics and to make policies that reduce the likelihood of conflict.”

Australian Book Review

DOUGLAS DILLON PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL

On Xi Jinping “illuminates the challenges of China today… A great read. Kevin analyses Xi Jinping as an analyst, but he has also spent a lot of time with him in the policymaking community including when Xi Jinping came to visit in Australia and they spent time together”.

IOP

FELLOW IN CHINA STUDIES, TAKSHASHILA INSTITUTION

“On Xi Jinping is a truly compelling read. Rudd has waded through vast amounts of Xi Jinping’s writings, official discourse and scholarly work distilling important insights for analysts and policymakers around the world. Indeed, we are in an era where tracking ideological discourse is critical to understand the long-term, strategic policy trends.”

Tracking People’s Daily

DIRECTOR, LAU CHINA INSTITUTE, KINGS COLLEGE LONDON

“Rudd makes a powerful case to show how much not only Xi, but also the officials and comrades gathered around him, actually believe these things. It is in China today that faith matters most..… Rudd is particularly good at showing how the strangely heterodox mixture of ideas from Marx, Mao and, in recent years, Confucius seen in China’s domestic politics relate to the outside world.”

Times Literary Supplement

AUSTRALIA CHAIR, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

“As a diplomat, scholar, and leader who has much experience studying both the Chinese Communist Party and dealing with Xi Jinping, Rudd’s new book will prompt needed debate – in Canberra and in Washington – over Xi’s plans to upend the international order, what’s needed to deter Beijing, and what China might look like in a post-Xi Jinping world.”

Australian Financial Review

EDITOR, ASEAN WONK AND WILSON CENTER ASIA PROGRAM FELLOW

“The book makes a comprehensive case for the centrality of Xi’s ideological framework in understanding China’s future regional and global approach … Kevin Rudd sheds light on how China’s current and future regional and global worldview is being shaped by Xi. In doing so, it adds to conversations across Indo-Pacific capitals about how to navigate China under Xi into the rest of the 2020s and likely into the 2030s in aggregate as well as in sectors ranging from technology to the media.”

ASEAN Wonk

“When weighing up the risks Xi Jinping is prepared to take in his competition with America, new calculations are needed. Forming them must involve studying what motivates China’s leader. A valuable tool is the vast body of literature purporting to have been written by Mr Xi… Analysts now have much more of Mr Xi’s thought to sift through. Among global statesmen, Kevin Rudd is rare in having undertaken this task.”

The Economist

FORMER DEPUTY SECRETARY, AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE DEPARTMENT

Xi Jinping’s “worldview is superbly analyzed in Kevin Rudd’s new book, On Xi Jinping: How Xi’s Marxist Nationalism Is Shaping China and the World, which should be read by specialists, the public and incoming Trump officials alike.”

ASPI

FORMER U.S. VICE-CONSUL IN BEIJING AND GUANGZHOU

“Those addressing the Xi Jinping regime in China would do well to read Kevin Rudd's new book, On Xi Jinping… Washington DC today needs such cool-headed analysis of the Chinese regime, including what makes Xi Jinping and the CCP tick.”

Japan Forward

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASIAN CENTURY INSTITUTE

“Kevin Rudd’s new book offers very insightful analysis on Chinese politics, economics, and foreign policy under Xi Jinping’s leadership, focusing on the critical role of ideology. It is a very well written and organised book, and thankfully the author has suggested a short cut way of reading the book for busy people and those who may be less interested in all the detailed background documents and analysis.”

AIIA

THE CIPHER BRIEF

“The book expertly addresses the problem affecting much of western Sinology, namely the paucity of synthesis compared to the abundance of analysis; in short, it makes sense of Xi’s enterprise, by asking ‘why’ it is headed that way, where it is likely to go next, and what, therefore, can usefully be done about it… Faced with such a rigorous demonstration and authoritative mastery of what remains a complex, fascinating and yet arcane subject of interest, the reader is left with awe, fear and admiration when considering its conclusion.”

The Cipher Brief

NATIONAL AFFAIRS EDITOR, ‘THE AUSTRALIAN’

“In echoes of George Kennan’s long telegram of 1946 relating to the Soviet Union, Rudd is now offering the closest thing to a new formula or conceptual framework setting out how the US and its allies should view and respond to the era of Xi Jinping.”

The Australian

AUTHOR, ‘THANK YOU MR CROMBIE: LESSONS IN GUILT AND GRATITUDE TO THE BRITISH’

What Britain needs is to understand that the China of Xi Jinping has a completely different worldview, both domestically and in foreign affairs, to Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader the west fell in love with. This has been very well analysed by the former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who knows China and can speak Chinese…. I would urge Sir Keir Starmer, or at least some of his advisors, to read Kevin Rudd’s On Xi Jinping.

LDD

MANAGING DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR STUDIES ON NEW RELIGIONS

“In more than 600 pages, he offers to us an encyclopedia on Xi Jinping’s thought on everything and a summary of Rudd’s own evolving views on China.… Since ideology matters for Xi Jinping, Rudd’s book matters for those who want to understand him. The alternative is reading daily Xi’s quite boring prose.”

Bitter Winter

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, ‘NOEMA’ MAGAZINE

“Many in the West have dismissed the turgid liturgy of Chinese Communist Party proclamations as empty rhetoric no one actually believed in, nothing more than a cover for the raw maintenance of power…. Kevin Rudd, a former Australian prime minister and one-time head of the Asia Society who is fluent in Mandarin, seeks to dispel that notion…. To understand how China’s leadership sees the world today, you have to look through their red lens, as Rudd does.”

Noema Magazine

“A disturbing study of the mentality of China’s leader, who has no doubts about his country’s ascension and his own role in it… There is great value in understanding how your opponents—or enemies—think, and policymakers in Washington, D.C., should pay attention to Rudd’s prodigious research. The author effectively unravels the thinking of Xi, finding him to be part emperor and part revolutionary socialist.”

Kirkus Reviews

“Beijing’s charm offensive presents opportunity and profound challenges for Australia. The comments of former prime minister Kevin Rudd, an acknowledged China expert, are worth absorbing.”

The Australian

PUBLISHER, OCTAVIAN REPORT

In what can only be described as a critically important work, he explains why Xi is driven by intense ideological views not seen since Mao that have resulted in profound changes in China’s behavior and aggressiveness, both domestically and on the world stage.

Octavian Report

SENIOR EDITOR, ‘THE NEW STATESMAN’

Fluent in both the Machiavellian aspects of political power and Mandarin, Rudd is uniquely positioned to undertake this study of Xi’s ideology.… On Xi Jinping is a remarkable feat of research, which delivers a clear, compelling argument as to what Xi really believes, and how he plans to remake China and the world.

New Statesman

WRITER, JACOBIN

On Xi Jinping is not for the fainthearted. But this deep dive into the byzantine nuances of Communist Party of China (CPC) orthodoxy can serve to clarify our thinking about where the roots of the current US-China rivalry lie, and where it’s headed.

Jacobin

WRITER, UK ‘DAILY TELEGRAPH’

A China specialist for more than four decades, Rudd could legitimately claim to know President Xi Jinping better than any senior figure in the West. His recent acclaimed book On Xi Jinping is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand this enigmatic and immensely important figure.

UK Daily Telegraph