Chinese leader Xi Jinping elected president for the third time

Chinese President Xi Jinping has been re-elected for a third term. At the 1st General Assembly of the 14th term of the Chinese National People’s Congress (NCC) in the capital Beijing, Xi was elected head of state for the third time with a unanimous vote of delegates, in which he was the only candidate. .

At the congress, Han Cing was elected vice president and Cao Lici was elected speaker of parliament.
Xi, Cao, and Han were sworn in and began their duties.

Xi, who was elected president twice in 2013 and 2018 and served for 10 years, was re-elected for a 5-year term, becoming the first person in the history of the People’s Republic of China to serve as president for the third time.

ARMY COMMANDER

Xi was also re-elected as chairman of the Central Military Commission, maintaining his position as commander-in-chief at the head of the army. The signal that Xi will continue his third-term presidency came with the 2018 amendment to the Chinese constitution. With the amendment, the rule limiting the head of state’s term to two terms was abolished, thus paving the way for Xi’s third term.

FIRST NAME CHOSEN FOR THE 3RD TIME AFTER MAO

Xi, 69, was elected party general secretary for the third time at the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 20th National Congress in October 2022, becoming the first leader to hold the party leadership for more than two terms since the founder of the party. People’s Republic of China, Mao Zidong. .

In China, where there is a one-party government and state and party administration are intertwined, high-level state duties are seen as an extension of party power and are carried out by officials themselves.
Xi will be the first leader to serve more than two terms in the presidency established by the 1982 Constitution in its current form.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, the presidency was first established in the 1954 Constitution under the name “PRC Presidency”. The country’s founding leader Mao handed it over after serving for 5 years in 1954-1959. However, due to political infighting and purges in the Cultural Revolution years, the position was left vacant or held by proxy.

Although the presidency of the People’s Republic of China was abolished with the Constitution adopted in 1975 after the Cultural Revolution, the authority of the party over the state was re-emphasized.

After Mao’s death in 1976, the “State Presidency” was restructured with the 1982 Constitution, in order to avoid the concentration of power in one hand. In this period, when Ding Xiaoping was accepted as the “supreme leader”, it was intended to avoid the concentration of power by separating the party secretary general, the head of state, the prime minister and the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission, which administers the army.

COMBINED AUTHORITIES IN ONE HAND IN 1989

However, the internal political crisis created by the Tienanmin Square protests in 1989 led to a regrouping of party, state and military leaders. In this period, in which the policy of reform and opening was followed and the trend towards institutionalization of the administration was accentuated, imposing a two-term limit on the presidency was seen as a formula that would ensure a conflict-free transfer of power. . force.

Before Xi, Jiang Zimin from 1993 to 2003 and Hu Cintao from 2003 to 2013 stepped down from state and party posts after serving two terms as president.
The Chinese leader’s transfer of power to the third term, contrary to recent practices, is seen as a sign that Xi’s “one man” position has been consolidated in the new term.
Xi’s ideas, called “Socialism with Chinese Character in the New Era,” were included in the Party’s Bylaws and Constitution, and in the CPC’s decision on the party’s history in 2021, Xi was defined as the “founding leader of thought” together with Mao. and Ding…
At last year’s CPC Congress, although names close to Xi were chosen for the party’s top cadres, it was emphasized that with the amendment made to the Party Charter, Xi was the “central leader” of the party and that his thoughts they would guide the CCP government. (AA)