Editor's note: Jaime FlorCruz has lived and worked in China since 1971. He studied Chinese history at Peking University (1977-81) and was TIME Magazine's Beijing correspondent and bureau chief (1982-2000).
Beijing (CNN) -- It's been nearly two years since Xi Jinping assumed paramount leadership in China and the world has mixed feelings about him.
The latest Pew Research Center findings show that Xi has received mostly negative ratings from those surveyed in the West, the Middle East, and long-time rivals Japan and the Philippines.
However, the president is viewed favorably in several neighboring countries, as well as in Africa. Back home in China, Xi also receives overwhelmingly good ratings, with 92% of Chinese people polled expressing confidence in him.
To many China watchers, such a mixed bag of ratings confirms that Xi remains a cipher. People -- both inside China and out -- are still debating: Is Xi Jinping a reformist or tyrant?
The man who took over the Communist Party's paramount post in November 2012, and six months later the state presidency, certainly has the pedigree for leadership. The son of a respected Communist guerrilla leader who was an ally of Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China's reform program, Xi grew up in Beijing with fellow "princelings" and political elite.
Since taking control, he's assumed a raft of top posts in the Party, the government and the military; some China watchers have dubbed him "Chairman of Everything.