BEIJING (AFP) – Xi Jinping was handed a third term as Chinese president yesterday, capping a rise that has seen him become the country’s most powerful leader in generations.
His appointment by China’s rubber-stamp Parliament comes after Xi locked in another five years as head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in October. Yesterday, delegates handed Xi a third term as president and re-appointed him head of the country’s Central Military Commission in a unanimous vote.
Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, a cavernous state building on the edge of Tiananmen Square, was adorned with crimson carpets and banners for the landmark vote, with a military band providing back-ground music.
A digital monitor on the edge of the stage proclaimed the final tally – all 2,952 votes had been cast in favour of giving Xi another term in office.
The announcement was followed by delegates’ fervent declarations of allegiance to the Chinese constitution, in a demonstration of loyalty and unanimity.
Xi held up his right fist and placed his left hand on a red, leather-bound copy of China’s constitution.
In an oath beamed live on state television, he vowed to “build a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilised, harmonious and great modern socialist country”. China’s close ally Russia swiftly offered Xi its “sincere congratulations” on his re-election.
“Russia highly values your personal contribution toward the strengthening of ties… and strategic cooperation between our nations,” President Vladimir Putin said in a letter to his “dear friend” Xi.
Xi’s re-election is the culmination of a remarkable rise in which he has gone from being a little-known party apparatchik to the leader of a rising global power. His coronation sets him up to become China’s longest-serving president, and means Xi could rule well into his seventies if no challenger emerges.
The beginning of his unprecedented third term comes as the world’s second-largest economy faces major headwinds, from slowing growth and a troubled real estate sector to a declining birth rate.
To confront these challenges, Beijing needs to implement structural reforms, one analyst told AFP.
“That can’t happen without political change. The NPC confirms that there is no change,” J Capital Research co-founder and expert on the Chinese economy Anne Stevenson-Yang told AFP.
Relations with the United States (US) are also at a low not seen in decades, with the powers sparring over everything from human rights to trade and technology.
“We will see a China more assertive on the global stage, insisting its narrative be accepted,” SOAS China Institute director Steve Tsang told AFP.
“But it is also one that will focus on domestically making it less dependent on the rest of the world, and making the Communist Party the centrepiece of governance, rather than the Chinese government,” he said.
