He has already spent ten years in power, and here he is once more for another five years. There was hardly any suspense regarding it. Xi Jinping was re-elected on Friday March 10 to the presidency of China for an unprecedented third term, following a formal vote.
The 69-year-old politician had already obtained in October 2022 a five-year extension at the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the military commission, the two most important positions of power in the country. His reappointment is the culmination of a rise that has seen him become the country’s most powerful leader for generations.
The result of the deputies’ vote, announced shortly before 11 a.m. in Beijing (4 a.m. in Paris, 3 a.m. in universal time) is final: 2,952 votes for, zero once morest, zero abstentions. Since the parliament in China is, in practice, subservient to the ruling CCP, the outcome of the poll was in no doubt. The only candidate, he was reappointed for the same term as Head of State.
China’s most powerful leader in decades
The last few months have however been complicated for Xi Jinping, with major demonstrations at the end of November once morest his “zero Covid” policy and a large wave of deaths which followed the abandonment of this health strategy in December. Sensitive subjects carefully avoided during the current annual session of Parliament, a highly orchestrated event during which Li Qiang, an ally of Xi Jinping, should become the new Prime Minister, replacing Li Keqiang. A new vice-president must also be formally elected by parliament, replacing Wang Qishan.
Xi Jinping’s re-election to the top of the state crowns a remarkable political progression in which he has gone from politician little known to the general public to the most powerful Chinese leader for a long time. For decades, the People’s Republic of China, scalded by political chaos and the cult of personality during the reign (1949-1976) of its leader and founder Mao Tse-tung, had promoted a more collegial governance at the top of power.
Under this model, Xi Jinping’s predecessors, namely Jiang Zemin (1993-2003) then Hu Jintao (2003-2013), had each given up their place as president following ten years in this position. But Xi Jinping put an end to this rule by abolishing the limit of two presidential terms in the Constitution in 2018, while allowing a quasi-cult of personality to develop around him. He thus becomes the supreme leader to stay in power the longest in the recent history of China.
Septuagenarian at the end of this new term, the re-elected president might even potentially extend for a new five-year term if no credible dolphin asserts himself in the meantime.
But his challenges remain numerous at the head of the second world economy, between the slowdown in growth, the fall in the birth rate, the difficulties of the real estate sector or even the international image of China to improve. Relations with the United States are at their lowest in decades, with many disputes, from Taiwan to the treatment of Uyghur Muslims, to rivalry in technology.
Xi Jinping this week condemned the “policy of containment, encirclement and repression once morest China” implemented by ” Western countries led by the United States ” and that ” led to unprecedented challenges for the development ” from the country.
(With AFP)
