30 east asian policy What is Xi Jinping Made Of: Xi in his own words Lance L P GORE* Despite the many changes that Xi Jinping has brought to China’s foreign and domestic policies in less than three years, the president himself remains a mystery. Many of his policies as well as his character and personal style can be discerned from his early writings when he was a local Party chief. Xi is neither a conservative ideologue that people in the West dread, nor a liberal reformer that many hoped for. * Lance L P GORE is Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore. AFTER NEARLY THREE years in power, Chinese President Xi Jinping remains a mystery to outside observers. He has radically altered the direction of Chinese foreign policy with his ambitious ‘One Belt, One Road’, Asian Infrastructure