President Xi Jinping has ruled China for more than a decade. He has overseen an era of unprecedented economic prosperity, cracked down on dissidents, reinvented national identity in his own image and adopted a confrontational ‘wolf warrior’ style of diplomacy on the world stage. Xi has also abolished term limits as President of the Communist Party and it’s possible that he will remain China’s all-powerful leader for the rest of his life. So what motivates the leader of the world’s most populous nation? What is his vision for China and the world? How much should the West push back and how much should it cooperate with Xi?

On May 20, Rana Mitter, renowned historian at Harvard Kennedy School and previously the Director of The University of Oxford’s China Centre, will come to Intelligence Squared for the next event in our new series, The Age of the Strongman. Drawing on his work and recent book China’s Good War: How World War II is Shaping a New Nationalism, Mitter will examine the key tenets of Xi’s political ideology, and how his cult of personality and military posturing in the Indo-Pacific will play out in 2025 and beyond.

Join us at Smith Square Hall in Westminster with host Gideon Rachman and ask your questions in the Q&A.