Qi Qiaoqiao

Qi Qiaoqiao is a Chinese businessperson, former civil official, and elder sister to Xi Jinping, current General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.

Early life and education

Qi was born in Yan'an in 1949 to Qi Xin, the second wife of Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China, Xi Zhongxun. At the age of three, Qi moved with her family to Beijing, where she was entered into the kindergarten at Beihai north of the Forbidden City.^[1]

In 1962, Qi entered Hebei Beijing Middle School (Chinese: 河北北京中学), which had been one of the only middle schools to participate in the student protests of 1935 that demanded the Nationalist government actively resist the invading Japanese army.^[1] When she enrolled, her father insisted that she be registered under her mother's surname, Qi. He also paid for her to board at the school throughout the week.^[1] As the daughter of a revolutionary family, Qi was made a member of her school's communist party and served as secretary for her class' communist party. During this time, she contracted tuberculosis; the disease that killed both her paternal grandparents. Qi recovered after three months, however, and passed her junior year exams.^[1]

Cultural Revolution

Late in 1962, Xi Zhongxun was denounced and his children were branded 'children of a criminal' (Chinese: 黑帮子弟). Qi was made to attend a special class at school to educate her on the principles of Marxism, along with the children of other disgraced officials and difficult students.^[1] When her mother returned home one day having been beaten, Qi also consoled her siblings.^[1]

In 1969, after the government started the Down to the Countryside Movement, Qi was officially excluded from joining the army, but managed to persuade the recruitment agency for the Inner Mongolia branch to allow her to join them. She was assigned to a rural team near Tonlyao city, where she stayed for over six years.^[1] Along with the other labourers, Qi was paid 5 Yuan per 10 days for constructing ditches and irrigation systems. Qi later stated that dysentery was so common that it was almost like the common cold. Once, when she was running a fever, Qi was sent to collect water and nearly fainted into the pit.^[1] She was later transferred to another team near Tonlyao.

In February 1978, Qi's father was rehabilitated and he was sent to work in Guangdong; Qi accompanied him as his secretary. Whilst there, Qi attended the First Military Medical University, but she suspended her studies due to health reasons.^[1] On her recovery, Qi worked in the Military Communications Bureau of Guangzhou, where she was responsible for repatriating Vietnamese female prisoners of war. When her father returned to Beijing, Qi went with him and enrolled in the Foreign Affairs College.^[1]

Career

After graduating, Qi worked with the police as the deputy director of the General Office and director of the Foreign Affairs Bureau.^[1]

In 2002, Qi Xin advised her daughter to seek employment after the death of her father. Though Qi argued that, being 50, she was close to retirement, she enrolled on an EMBA course at Qinghua University in 2004.^[1] Qi set-up the company Qinchuan Dadi Investment Limited (Chinese: 秦川大地投资有限公司) in 2007, along with her husband Deng Jiagui. The company predominantly invests in the mining sector and real estate.^[2]

In 2014, multiple news agencies reported that Xi Jinping, Qi's brother and newly president of China, had instructed her to sell her assets and withdraw from the business world.^[3]

Businesses

In addition to Qinchuan Dadi Investment Limited, Qi co-owns Shenzhen Yuanwei Investment Company with her husband.^[2] Qi is thought to own several tens of millions of USD in company shares and real estate property, along with her husband and daughter.^[2]

Qi has bought shares in various companies, including the Wanda Commerce Real Estate Company, which she purchased with Deng Jiagui for 28.6 million USD in 2009.^[4] Qi and her husband transferred the shares in 2013, supposedly to an employee, so that the couple could avoid claims of conflict of interest.^[5]

References