The sentences right after this are also pretty glowing. Nice guy Xi :xi:

Nevertheless, despite Xi's lack of popularity in the conventional sense and his "cold and calculating" demeanor in these early years, the professor said, Xi was "not cold-hearted." He was still considered a"good guy" in other ways. Xi was outwardly friendly, "always knew the answers" to questions, and would "always take care of you." The professor surmised that Xi's new found popularity today, which the professor found surprising, must stem in part from Xi's being "generous and loyal."

Of course, we have President Xi getting a degree in Applied Marxism, cue the "while you partied, I studied the blade" meme :anarxi:

The professor and his friends were reading DeGaulle and Nixon and "trying to catch up for lost years by having fun," while Xi was reading Marx and laying the foundation for a career in politics. Xi even went off to join a "worker-peasant-soldier revolutionary committee" (note: a label given provincial governing units during the Cultural Revolution), after which the professor had presumed he would never see Xi again. It was an "open secret," the professor said, that it was through the "worker-peasant-soldier revolutionary committee" that Xi got his "bachelor's education." The professor said Xi's first degree was not a "real" university education, but instead a three-year degree in applied Marxism.

And to add on to that, Xi confirmed a martial arts master and purveyor of the mystic arts :xi-shining:

Xi at one point early in his career was quite taken with Buddhist mysticism, according to the professor. In comments Xi made to the professor, including during the professor's visit to Xiamen while Xi was serving as an official there, Xi displayed a fascination with Buddhist martial arts, qigong, and other mystical powers said to aid health, as well as with Buddhist sacred sites such as Wutaishan. The professor said he does not know whether Xi was actually religious, or whether he was simply looking for a way to aid his health and well-being. Regardless, the professor said, he was extremely surprised by how much Xi knew about the subject and Xi's seeming belief in supernatural forces.