On October 22, 2007, after the First Plenary Session of the 17th CCP Central Committee, Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang were both elected to the Politburo Standing Committee. Xi Jinping ranked sixth but stood in front, and the outside world saw him as the successor to Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao.
On March 24, 2007, Xi Jinping was transferred from Secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee to Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, succeeding acting municipal Party Committee Secretary Han Zheng after the Chen Liangyu case.
In October 2002, Xi Jinping was transferred to serve as Deputy Party Secretary and Acting Governor of Zhejiang Province; in November, he was elected as a member of the CCP Central Committee for the first time at the 16th National Congress, and was promoted to Party Secretary of Zhejiang Province at the end of the month.
In 1988, Mao Xinyu scored only 109 in total on the gaokao. His mother tried to use privileges to get him into Peking University, but was refused by then-president Ding Shisun on the grounds of "welcome to apply."
At just 32 years old, after two years of working at the grassroots level in Hebei, Xi Jinping was promoted to member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Xiamen Committee and vice mayor, becoming one of the youngest officials at or above the deputy department level in the country at the time. This promotion was made possible with the help of his father, Xi Zhongxun.
In the spring of 1979, Xi Jinping and Bo Xilai met by chance in Beijing's Yuanyuan Tan Park. The two recalled their respective difficult experiences, and Bo Xilai even took Xi Jinping to a gathering of princelings.