Over the past decade, Xi has become a transformational figure on a par with the two other giants of Chinese Communist Party rule: Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Like them, he has reversed earlier policies, in Xi’s case the relative openness that his predecessors had fostered. In its place, he has implemented firmer control of almost every facet of life, from politics and religion to the economy and foreign affairs. Now 69, he is likely to be China’s leader into old age and is presiding over what may become a less predictable era of Chinese politics, one with troubling implications for countries around the world.