Xi takes charge
Unanimous vote as top ally named V-P
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping was elected to a second term with 100% of the vote, days after the lifting of presidential term limits allowed him to stay in office indefinitely.
He was also unanimously re-elected chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC).
His political allies Wang Qishan, 69, and Li Zhanshu, 67, were elected Vice-President and chairman of the National People’s Congress, or Parliament, with 99.9% and 100% of the vote, respectively, yesterday.
Xi’s 100% vote equals the 100% vote won by Wang Yang on Wednesday when the latter was elected as chairman of the top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
If it fell short of 100%, it would have shown that “there are a few very courageous individuals”, said Professor Steve Tsang of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
Xi, 64, has strengthened his grip on power over the last five years which in late 2016 saw him anointed as “core” leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
At the party’s national congress last October, his guiding political thought bearing his name – the “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” – was written into the party constitution.
Only Mao Zedong has had his political thought written into the party charter while in office.
Xi has chosen as his vice-president Wang, hitherto his anti-corruption czar, at a time when the external environment is becoming more difficult for China, noted observers.
Wang, a trusted ally of Xi, is expected to handle China’s foreign policy and in particular its relationship with the United States.
Not only will he have to deal with a looming trade war with the US, but Washington has also named China a strategic competitor that seeks to “challenge American power, influence and interests” and “to erode American security and prosperity”. — The Straits Times/Asia News Network