Chi è Xi Jinping

Il Guardian delinea il profilo di Xi Jinping, attuale vicepresidente cinese e con ogni probabilità successore di Hu Jintao alla guida del paese, questa settimana in visita negli Stati Uniti.

The Chinese vice-president's Valentine's Day meeting with Barack Obama is notable - as are his plans to catch a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game and to return to Muscatine, the tiny Iowa town he visited in 1985 as head of an animal feed delegation.

His activities suggest he is shaping an image very different from that of the current Chinese president, Hu Jintao.

While Hu is determinedly anonymous, Xi is "a big personality", according to those who have met him.