xi jinping is the son of former chinese vice premier xi zhongxun and qi xin. he rose politically in china's coastal provinces. he was the governor of fujian between 1999 and 2002. between 2002 and 2007, he was governor and cpc party chief of zhejiang. after the dismissal of chen liangyu, xi was transferred to shanghai as the party secretary for a short time in 2007. xi was promoted to the central leadership in october 2007 and trained to become hu jintao's successor.