Xi re- elected China Prez, close aide Qishan is V- P
Beijing, March 17: Xi Jinping was on Sunday reelected as president for a second five- year tenure by China’s rubber- stamp parliament, days after it scrapped the two- term rule for the presidency and allowed him to have a life- long tenure.
The NPC has also elected 64- year- old Xi as the head of the Central Military Commission ( CMC), the overall high command of the two million strong Chinese military, the world’s largest.
Xi has already been elected as general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China ( CPC) at its once- in- fiveyear congress in October last year. Significantly, Xi’s loyalist and close confidant Wang Qishan, 69, has been elected as vicepresident, who like Xi is set for a lifelong tenure.
Saturday’s election comes after the National People’s Congress ( NPC) on March 11 ratified the constitutional amendment for removing the two- term limit for president and vice president proposed by the CPC.
The election will ensure Xi heads the CPC, the military and the presidency, perhaps for life. He is the first Chinese leader to have that privilege after party founder chairman Mao Zedong who ruled China from 1949 till his death in 1976.
Technically the election marks Xi’s second- term which would last till 2023. But after the constitutional amendments removed the term limit he is expected to have a limitless tenure. Xi was elected unanimously as president and head of CMC by 2,970 deputies of NPC which has the reputation of being a rubber- stamp parliament for routinely ratifying CPC proposals.
Wang, however got 2,969, one vote less in the carefully choreographed poll. Observers say the one vote dissent was officially sanctioned to show diversity in China’s political system.