Xi Jinping won a third term as president of the China after a formal vote in the National Popular Assembly (APN) that also ratifies him as president of the Central Military Commission, according to media reports such as telesur.
The result of the vote was final: 2,952 votes in favor, zero against, and no abstentions. It was celebrated with loud applause from the parliamentarians gathered in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
#XiJinping pledges allegiance to Constitution. #2023TwoSessions pic.twitter.com/ApeKDnWxXc
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) March 10, 2023
Parliament is, in practice, subject to the Communist Party (CPC), which in October already appointed Xi for another five years as secretary general and head of the formation’s military commission, the two most powerful positions in the country, point the agency AFP.
Xi Jinping, 69, has held this position since 2013. The last few months, this source points out, have been difficult for him, with large demonstrations at the end of November against his “zero covid” policy and a wave of deaths after the abandonment of this strategy in December.
The NPC also chose up to now Vice Premier Han Zheng as vice president instead of Wang Qishan, and Zhao Leji as chairman of the parliament’s standing committee, AFP said.
Xi’s formal re-election as head of state marks the remarkable political rise of a once little-known official who has become the most powerful Chinese leader in decades.
Well into his seventies when his third term ends, he could even aspire to another five years as president, the French source points out.
But the world’s second largest economy has numerous challenges ahead: slowing growth, falling birth rates, difficulties in the real estate sector or a weighed down international image.
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Relations with the United States are at their lowest point in decades, with multiple disputes ranging from the status of Taiwan to the treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority and technological rivalry.
Xi this week denounced the “policy of containment, encirclement and suppression against China” applied by the “Western countries led by the United States” that “has brought unprecedented severe challenges to the development” of the country.
