The biggest international political story you may not have heard about…

You can be forgiven if you don’t know who Xi Jinping is, or what’s going on in Beijing this week.

After all, the U.S. elections have an effect similar to going to a Rush concert and standing five feet from the speaker cabinets before trying to listen to your low talking, elderly aunt explain her strategy for winning the slots down at the charity casino.

Say…what?

It’s really no surprise, given that the American democracy is so vibrant, vital, and let’s face it, takes place in the country that helped invent television and modern mass marketing. You are bound to hear about it whether you want to or not.

The once-in-a-decade leadership transition happening here in Beijing right now is the opposite of this in many ways. The ruling Communist Party seeks to keep most of the important decision making either low-profile, or practically secret. While reporters covering candidates in the U.S. presidential elections are invited onto campaign planes to travel with the candidates, and protesters and hecklers are tolerated and expected – these things… how should I put this politely?… are handled… er … differently in the country I’m presently writing this from.

But we shouldn’t let the different circumstances confuse us about the very important story coming out of the Great Hall of the People here in Beijing right now.

Just consider this one point: for all the history he’s made so far, Barack Obama is also set to become one of the last American presidents to lead his country as the world’s largest economy. That’s right, according the International Monetary Fund, China is set to replace the U.S. as the biggest economy within the next few years. And when it happens, the president of China at this historic moment will be Xi Zinping, whose tenure as China’s paramount leader is officially starting this week.

So what do we know about him? Sadly, not enough. Certainly there are more Americans, and probably a lot of Canadians, who could name President Obama’s dog before they could pick out a picture of Mr. Xi.

He’s 59, married to a famous Chinese singer, has a daughter at Harvard, and his father was a legendary Communist revolutionary figure who fought with Mao Zedong during the days of the Long March.

But how will he govern? That’s the hard question. Observers and “sinologists” are all offering their predictions. But just assuming China continues the path it’s been on for the past 10 or so years – we are all going to be enjoying, confronting, doing business with, going to school with, traveling to, and at times, even quarreling with a China the size and scope and new prestige that most of us could not have imagined.

China is poised to change the way the global system works, and it’s about time we all started to learn a little bit more about people like Xi Jinping.

Paul is Global National’s Asia correspondent. Follow him on Twitter: @PJohnsonGlobal.