Xi wins third term as Chinese president amid series of challenges

BEIJING, March 10 (Reuters) – Xi Jinping secured an unprecedented third term as China’s president on Friday during a parliamentary session in which he tightened his grip on the world’s second-largest economy as it emerges from a COVID slump and challenges. diplomats. mount.

Nearly 3,000 members of China’s official parliament, the National Congress of People (APN), voted unanimously in the Great Hall of the People for Xi, 69, in an election in which there was no other candidate.

Xi has led China on a more authoritarian path since taking over a decade ago, extending his tenure for another five years amid increasingly antagonistic relations with the United States and its allies over Taiwan, Beijing’s backing of Russia , trade and human rights.

Domestically, China faces a challenging recovery after three years of Xi’s zero-COVID policy, fragile confidence between consumers and businesses, and weak demand for China’s exports.

The economy grew just 3% last year, among its worst performances in decades. During the parliamentary session, the government set a modest growth target for this year of around 5%.

“In his third term, Xi will need to focus on economic recovery,” said Willy Lam, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a US think tank.

“But if he continues with what he has been doing – tighter party and state control over the private sector and confrontation with the West – his prospects for success will not be encouraging.”

Russian President Vladimir putin he was one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate Xi on his third term. The two sealed a “no limits” partnership between China and Russia in February last year, days before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

Xi set the stage for another term when he removed presidential term limits in 2018 and has become China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, who founded the People’s Republic.

The presidency is largely ceremonial, and Xi’s main position of power was extended last October when he was reconfirmed for five more years as general secretary of the Communist Party’s central committee.

In Washington, US President Joe Biden remained focused on managing the strategic competition with China, White House spokesman John Kirby said. “Mr. Xi’s third term certainly doesn’t surprise anyone here. All of that was highly anticipated,” Kirby said.

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During the vote on Friday, Xi held talks with Prime Minister-in-waiting Li Qiangwho is about to be confirmed on Saturday for China’s second-highest job, a role that puts the former Shanghai party chief and Xi ally in charge of the economy.

Other Xi-approved officials will be picked or appointed to government posts this weekend, including deputy prime ministers, a central bank governor and many other ministers and department heads.

The annual parliamentary session, the first since China lifted three years of COVID restrictions, will end on Monday, when Xi delivers a speech followed by a media question-and-answer session by Li.

During Friday’s session, Xi and dozens of other top leaders on stage did not wear masks, but everyone else in the auditorium did.

China ended its zero COVID policy in December after highly unusual nationwide protests against restrictions that were stifling daily life and the economy.

The virus, which emerged in China in late 2019, then spread rapidly to infect most of its 1.4 billion people, but authorities have not released a full tally of related deaths.

The parliament also elected Zhao Leji, 66, as parliament speaker and Han Zheng, 68, vice president on Friday. Both men were from Xi’s previous team of party leaders on the Politburo Standing Committee.

Reporting by Yew Lun Tian, ​​additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Edited by Lincoln Feast, Tony Munroe, Robert Birsel, and Raissa Kasolowsky

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