When Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24, much of the attention will be on the high-stakes talks between the leaders that are expected to focus on trade, technology, artificial intelligence, and the complicated relationship between the world’s two largest economies.
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that → arrive → economies
But at the summit, Xi will be joined by his wife, Peng Liyuan, who has spent more than a decade accompanying him on diplomatic trips and cultivating a public role that is unusual for a leader’s wife in China.
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that → join → China
A celebrated singer before Xi became China’s leader, Peng has helped transform the largely ceremonial role of the Chinese president’s wife into a more visible form of cultural and public diplomacy.
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Peng → become → diplomacy
Before his marriage, Xi kept a low profile, leading to the running joke: “Who is Xi Jinping?
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Who → keep → joke
He’s Peng Liyuan’s husband.”
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He → ’ → ?
Peng, 63, was born in 1962 in the Shandong province to a family with artistic roots.
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Peng → bear → roots
Her mother was a Chinese opera performer, and Peng developed a career as a folk and soprano singer.
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Peng → develop → singer
She joined the People’s Liberation Army in the 1980s and eventually became one of China’s most recognizable performers.
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She → join → performers
Liyuan and Xi married in the fall of 1987.
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Liyuan → marry → 1987
Xi was working as the deputy mayor of the port city of Xiamen, Fujian.
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Xi → work → Xiamen
Even after their marriage, Liyuan was a regular performer on China Central Television’s annual Lunar New Year gala, one of the country’s most-watched television programs, and earned major honors for her work as a singer and actress.
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Liyuan → watch → singer
By the time Xi became general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012 and president in 2013, Peng was arguably the more recognizable half of the couple among the Chinese public.
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Peng → become → public
But Peng has become the most publicly visible wife of a Chinese leader in decades.
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Peng → become → decades
In the early years of Communist rule, leaders’ wives generally played little public diplomatic role.
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wives → play → role
But in 1963, President Liu Shaoqi traveled to Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries with his wife, Wang Guangmei, marking the first overseas trip by a Chinese leader accompanied by his wife.
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Shaoqi → travel → wife
Zhuo Lin, the wife of Deng Xiaoping, accompanied him on foreign trips but generally avoided the spotlight.
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Lin → accompany → spotlight
Jiang Zemin’s wife, Wang Yeping, maintained a low profile, as did Hu Jintao’s wife, Liu Yongqing.
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wife → maintain → profile
She became deeply involved in politics and was a member of the Politburo and a leading figure in the Cultural Revolution.
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She → become → Revolution
After Mao’s death in 1976, she was arrested and eventually sentenced to life imprisonment.
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she → arrest → imprisonment
Peng’s public role represents something different: Rather than operating as a political power behind her husband, she has largely used her celebrity, cultural background, and international profile as tools of public diplomacy.
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she → represent → diplomacy
Peng has frequently accompanied Xi on foreign trips after he became China’s leader, while taking on causes that fit the traditional public-facing role of a political spouse.
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that → accompany → spouse
In 2011, the World Health Organization appointed Peng a Goodwill Ambassador for tuberculosis and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
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Organization → appoint → tuberculosis
Before that appointment, she had worked in China on similar health initiatives.
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she → work → initiatives
In 2014, UNESCO appointed her a Special Envoy for the Advancement of Girls’ and Women’s Education, citing her advocacy for education and women’s empowerment.
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UNESCO → appoint → education
Her background in the arts has remained part of her public identity as well.
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background → remain → identity
She has held senior positions within the PLA’s cultural institutions and has been associated with the People’s Liberation Army Art Academy.
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She → hold → Academy
Perhaps the clearest example of Peng’s new model of first-lady diplomacy came in 2014, when she hosted Michelle Obama during the former U.S. first lady’s first solo official visit to China.
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she → come → China
The visit was notable because it put Peng in a role familiar to Americans, where the first lady serves as a public diplomatic counterpart to another country’s first lady.
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lady → put → lady
Peng and first lady Melania Trump have had fewer public interactions than Peng did with Michelle Obama.
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Peng → have → Obama
The two most visible meetings between Peng and Melania Trump came during Xi’s 2017 visit to Mar-a-Lago and Trump’s trip to Beijing later that year, when the two women appeared together at several state events.
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women → come → events
The Aporia
