New Delhi: Xi Jinping was elected as President of China for a third consecutive term cementing his position as the most influential national leader since founder Mao Zedong. He also continued as the general secretary of the ruling Communist Party again tilting China decisively back to one-man rule after decades of power sharing among its elites.
The announcement of Xi becoming the Chinese President for the third time culminated in a week-long gathering of party faithful in China’s capital during which high-ranking officials endorsed his “core position” in the leadership and approved a sweeping reshuffle which made several top officials step down, stated a report by news agency AFP.
ALSO READ | Xi Jinping All Set To Enter Another 5-Yr Term, Know All About His Rivals Dropped From PSC
The delegates also elected a new Central Committee of around 200 senior party officials, who gathered on Sunday to elect the Standing Committee — the apex of Chinese political power which will now be headed by Xi at the top.
A list of officials in the new Central Committee earlier revealed that four out of seven members of the Standing Committee will be replaced, allowing Xi to further pack the top body with loyalists, the AFP report stated.
Born in 1953 in Beijing, Xi is the son of revolutionary veteran Xi Zhongxun, a former vice premier and one of the Communist Party’s founding fathers. Considered a ‘princeling’ — a child of elite senior officials — his family’s fortune took a dramatic turn in 1962 when his father was imprisoned.
After several unsuccessful attempts, Xi was finally accepted into the Communist Party in 1974 and slowly started making it to the top. He was put in charge of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics which helped China symbolise itself with growing power and propelled Xi up the party ranks reaching the top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, and in 2012 he was picked as China’s President.