Xi Jinping was on Friday unanimously re-elected Chinese President for a historic third term. Xi Jinping was also elected Chairman of the Central Military Commission of China on the platform of the ruling Communist Party of China.
The re-election was an outcome of the ongoing session of the 14th National People’s Congress.
The event marked the third plenary meeting of the first session of the congress which held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China.
Xi Jinping’s re-election as President of China illustrates the choice by representatives of Chinese people and the history of the 1.4 billion population of the country.
It also reflects Chinese path to modernisation, democratic culture and tradition to remove 100 million people out of poverty.
CNN reports that the reappointment of Xi, China’s most powerful and authoritarian leader in decades, was largely seen as a formality, after the 69-year-old secured a norm-shattering third term as head of the Chinese Communist Party last fall.
In China, the presidency – or “state chairman” in Chinese – is a largely ceremonial title. Real power resides in the positions of head of the party and military, two key roles that Xi also holds and was reappointed to at a key Communist Party congress in October.
Nevertheless, his reappointment as head of state officially completes his transition into a second decade in power.
CNN reports that Xi has now entered new historical territory
No Chinese leader had held the title of head of state for more than 10 years, including Communist China’s founding father, Chairman Mao Zedong.
Liu Shaoqi, who took over as state chairman from Mao in 1959, was sacked in 1968 and persecuted to death a year later during Mao’s tumultuous Cultural Revolution.
After Mao’s death, paramount leader Deng Xiaoping introduced presidential term limits in China’s constitution in 1982 to avoid the kind of chaos and catastrophe seen under Mao’s life-long rule.
Deng also led institutional reforms to bring a greater separation of positions and functions between the party and the state.
However, those efforts have been severely undermined by Xi, who greatly expanded the party’s hold on power – and his own grip over the party.
In 2018, China’s legislature abolished presidential term limits in a ceremonial vote, effectively allowing Xi to rule for life.
