Xi Jinping won a historic third term as China’s president yesterday after a formal vote by the country’s legislature ratified his status as the most powerful leader in decades.
The result of the vote by the deputies was final: 2,952 votes in favour, zero against and no abstentions, celebrated with resounding applause from the parliamentarians gathered in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Parliament is, in practice, subject to the Communist Party (CPC), which in October already appointed Xi for another five years as secretary general and head of the formation’s military commission, the two most powerful positions in the country.
The only candidate for the position, the 69-year-old leader received a new term as head of state, a position he has held since 2013.
After knowing the result, three uniformed soldiers went down the stairs of the huge room to place a copy of the Constitution on a desk. “I swear to be loyal to the motherland and the people and work hard to build a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, more civilized and harmonious,” Xi promised with his fist raised in his oath, broadcast on televisions. states across the country.
The last few months have been difficult for Xi, with large demonstrations at the end of November against his “covid zero” policy and a wave of deaths after abandoning this strategy in December.
These sensitive issues were dodged during the annual session of Parliament, a carefully choreographed event in which Xi’s ally Li Qiang is due to replace Li Keqiang as prime minister.
The National People’s Congress (NPC) also elected former Vice Premier Han Zheng, who was mayor of Shanghai from 2003 to 2012, as vice president instead of Wang Qishan, and Zhao Leji as chairman of the parliament’s standing committee.
Personality cult. Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country is a close economic and diplomatic ally of China, was quick to address Xi Jinping with “sincere congratulations”.
“Russia greatly appreciates your personal contribution to strengthening relations (…) between our countries,” Putin said in a message published by the Kremlin.
Xi’s formal re-election as head of state marks the remarkable political rise of a once little-known official who has become the most powerful Chinese leader in decades.
Swiss writer and journalist Adrian Geiges, author of a biography on the president, believes that Xi “really has a vision of China. He “he wants China to become the most powerful country in the world”.
For decades, the People’s Republic of China, scalded by political chaos and personality cult during the reign of its leader and founder Mao Tse Tung (1949-1976), promoted a more collegial system of government in the upper echelons of power. . Under this model, Xi’s predecessors (Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao) left the presidency after ten years in office.
But Xi put an end to this rule by abolishing the constitutional two-term presidential term limit in 2018, while fueling a budding personality cult.
“Containment, siege and repression”. Xi Jinping will thus become the leader with the longest years in power in the recent history of the Asian giant. Well into his 70s when he finishes his third term, he could even aim for another five years as president if no credible successor emerges in this time.
But the world’s second largest economy has numerous challenges ahead: slowing growth, falling birth rates, difficulties in the real estate sector or a weighed down international image.
Relations with the United States are at their lowest point in decades, with multiple disputes ranging from the status of Taiwan to the treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority and technological rivalry.
Xi this week denounced the “policy of containment, encirclement and suppression against China” applied by the “Western countries led by the United States” that “has brought unprecedented severe challenges to the development” of the country.
“We are going to see a more self-confident China on the international stage, asserting its rhetoric more pronounced” while trying to “reduce its dependency on the rest of the world,” said Steve Tsang of the SOAS China institute in London. .
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