Xi: China's most powerful leader since Mao

Xi Jinping joined the pantheon of Chinese leadership in 2012, two decades after bursting onto the scene as a graft-fighting governor

President Xi has amassed power and adulation unseen since Communist China's founder Mao Zedong

Xi Jinping, who is soon expected to be anointed for an unprecedented third term in office as China's ruling Communist Party (CCP) holds its 20th Congress, has become his country's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.

Xi has amassed seemingly unchecked power and a level of officially-stoked adulation unseen since Communist China's founder Mao.