Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping abolished presidential term limits in 2018, securing himself as China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. His administration oversaw the mass detention of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang (described by some governments as genocide), the crushing of Hong Kong's democracy movement, an unprecedented military build-up in the South China Sea, and the Belt and Road Initiative that extended Chinese influence across 150 countries. He has made China a superpower rival to the United States while presiding over its most repressive era in decades.