CHINA: Xi Jinping on Friday secured a precedent-breaking third five-year term as China’s President as he tightens his grip as the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.
Nearly 3,000 members of China’s Parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), voted unanimously in the Great Hall of the People for Xi, 69, to be President in an election where there was no other candidate.
The voting lasted for about an hour and the electronic counting was completed in about 15 minutes.The stage was set for another Xi term when he did away with Presidential term limits in 2018. His power was already extended last October when he was reconfirmed for another five years as general secretary of the central committee of the ruling Communist Party.
Over the next two days, officials approved by Xi are set to be appointed or elected to fill top positions in the Cabinet, including Premier-in-waiting Li Qiang, who is expected to be named to China’s No.2 post, putting him in charge of managing the world’s second largest economy. “I wish to thank the whole party sincerely for the trust you have placed in us,” Xi told journalists at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People after the closed-door vote was announced.
He promised to “work diligently in the performance of our duties to prove worthy of the great trust of our party and our people.
“The 20th Congress elected the new Central Committee of around 200 senior party officials, who then gathered on Sunday to elect Xi and the other members of the Standing Committee the apex of Chinese political power. Xi has overseen China’s rise as the world’s second-biggest economy. – FRANCE 24
by Daily News Sri Lanka
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