Xi Jinping is the most powerful person in the world. China’s leader rules over a nation of 1.4 billion, a country with a global reach whose only peer is the United States. And unlike President Joe Biden, Xi does not have to answer to a Supreme Court or an independent legislature. Yet, for all his importance, little is known about Xi. In his new book, Party of One: Xi Jinping and China’s Superpower Future, Wall Street Journal reporter Chun Han Wong seeks to remedy this problem.

Xi, Chun Han Wong details, is part and parcel of the Chinese Communist Party that he leads. His legitimacy is inseparable from the party that he controls, a feature that distinguishes him from some of his more powerful predecessors who could point to their track records as creators of the Chinese communist state. But to understand the son, one must first understand the father.