Essay: The misty origins of the Xi personality cult

How the courage of one plump-faced cadre assigned a seat-warming job in Zhejiang Province 20 years ago transformed backward Pujiang into a world-class example of the paramount leader's magic touch.

Trigger warning: Xi Jinping hasn’t been on the news (in the present tense) since July 31 for reasons unknown, but there’s been no absence of his virtual self in the past tense, as the Xi personality cult has gained enough momentum to run on empty, with lots of re-runs, some older than others. Today’s top story dates to 2003. All of the images below (and some but not all of the content) come directly from the Xinwen Lianbo news report in the order they appeared.