Everybody is a bit nervous about going to the front, he says. "Your heart beats differently at times. But we signed up for this. We gave a pledge. Mao, by all accounts, was a destroyer who ripped up the rule book not once but several times. But Xi is no anarchist - he is not even a rebel. And he certainly doesn't want the chaos of Mao's years, which tore apart his own family, to return. irannews.ru/ - irannews.ru Public don't want a fourth election in seven years - ERG chair Mao, by all accounts, was a destroyer who ripped up the rule book not once but several times. But Xi is no anarchist - he is not even a rebel. And he certainly doesn't want the chaos of Mao's years, which tore apart his own family, to return. In 2017, at the beginning of his second term, Xi declared: "China has stood up, grown rich, become strong and is moving towards the centre stage." Keep reading Comparing Xi Jinping to Mao Zedong is "inane", scoffs Rebecca Karl, a professor of Chinese History at New York University. This was unprecedented in the post-Mao era.