Xi Jinping

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Xi Jinping, China’s newly appointed leader, is expected to focus early in his tenure on curbing the communist nation’s rampant corruption and re-energizing a slowing economy. Mr. Xi is not expected to project a softer image when it comes to human rights. (Associated Press)

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In this Nov. 15, 2012 file photo, new Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping attends the press event to introduce the newly-elected members of the Politburo Standing Committee at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. Xi is highlighting corruption as a scourge that could bring down the Communist Party, though he has yet to offer any specific new proposals to stop it. In a weekend speech that was carried Monday, Nov. 19, by the official Xinhua News Agency, Xi told the new 25-member Politburo that the party must be vigilant against graft, noting that corruption in other countries in recent years has prompted major social unrest and the collapse of governments. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

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**FILE** A huge screen shows a broadcast of China's new Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping speaking in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Nov. 15, 2012. (Associated Press)

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China’s new leaders, led by new Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping (left), must deal with problems that have long festered — from a sputtering economy to friction with the U.S. — that have worsened in recent months as leadership focused on this week’s power transfer. (Associated Press)

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Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping attends during the closing ceremony for the 18th Communist Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012. Designated as successor five years ago, Xi will take over as party general secretary from Hu Jintao on Thursday, Nov. 15, and as president next spring, in only China’s second orderly transfer of power. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

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** FILE ** Then-Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (left) meets on Feb. 14, 2012, with President Obama in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (Associated Press)

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Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Vice President Joseph R. Biden, display T-shirts given to them by students at the International Studies Learning Center in South Gate, Calif., on Feb. 17. Mr. Xi is expected to take over as head of the ruling Communist Party in November, before becoming president in 2013. Below are the dusty remnants of an abandoned cave dwelling where Mr. Xi lived during part of his youth, when he was sent to learn Mao-era peasant virtues. (The Associated Press)

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In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012, dusty remnants of an abandoned cave dwelling where Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping used to live during his youth when he was sent to learn peasant virtues at Liangjiahe village in northwestern China's Shaanxi province. Xi, 59 and the country's vice president is expected to take over as head of the ruling party in November, 2012, before becoming president in 2013 of an increasingly assertive China. The Liangjiahe years are among scant details known about Xi's life and personality partly because he himself chronicled them as a key formative experience. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta exchanges pleasantries Wednesday with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Mr. Xi is set to become Communist Party chief next month and president next spring. (Associated Press)

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Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta (center) shakes hands with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Larry Downing, Pool)

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U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, left, meets with China's Vice President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012. Panetta met Wednesday with Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi, who just days ago reappeared after a puzzling two-week disappearance. (AP Photo/Larry Downing, Pool)