Historical autocracy
People’s Congress confirms Xi for third term
3/10/2023 4:04 am
As early as 2018, Xi abolished the term limit for Chinese presidents. Now the People’s Congress meeting in Beijing has confirmed the 69-year-old for a historic third term of office. Xi follows in the footsteps of the founder of the state, Mao.
The Chinese People’s Congress has confirmed head of state and party leader Xi Jinping for an unusual third term as president. As expected, the almost 3,000 hand-picked delegates at their current annual meeting in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing voted for a further extension of the term of office by five years. Xi himself paved the way for this when in 2018 he abolished the two-seat presidential term limit that had previously applied.
At the party conference in October, the 69-year-old defied previously respected age and term limits and had a permanent leadership role enshrined in the party constitution. With his sole rule, he ties in with the founder of the state and revolutionary Mao Tsetung, who, however, had brought chaos to the country. Xi was also confirmed as head of the military commission, which effectively mirrors at the government level the Communist Party’s military commission, which he heads. He remains commander-in-chief of the People’s Liberation Army.
The week-long annual conference, which lasts until Monday, will see the largest government reshuffle in ten years, with close confidants of Xi Jinping in particular moving up. Former Shanghai party leader Li Qiang is set to become the new prime minister on Saturday. The 63-year-old succeeds Li Keqiang, who was not in Xi Jinping’s camp and is expected to step down after two terms.
On the other hand, the Chinese leadership largely avoided dealing with the corona pandemic at the conference, which had triggered violent public protests for the first time in years. For almost three years until December, China had been pursuing an extremely strict pandemic policy with mass testing, rigid quarantine regulations and travel restrictions with serious consequences for social life and the economy.
In November, pent-up resentment erupted in the largest public demonstrations in decades, including calls for Xi’s resignation. The government then abruptly ended the corona measures: millions of people became infected, thousands died – the authorities did not record exact figures.