{"id":5757,"date":"2023-03-11T01:49:17","date_gmt":"2023-03-11T01:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/?p=5757"},"modified":"2023-03-11T01:49:46","modified_gmt":"2023-03-11T01:49:46","slug":"xi-jinping-begins-historic-third-term-as-chinas-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/xi-jinping-begins-historic-third-term-as-chinas-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Xi Jinping begins historic third term as China’s president"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


Stephen McDonell & Joel Guinto<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

China’s leader Xi Jinping has secured a historic third term as president from the country’s rubber-stamp parliament.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It follows a consolidation of power that has made Mr Xi, 69, China’s most dominant leader in generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Chinese system of governance, the functions of the president are largely ceremonial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Xi’s power comes from him being General Secretary of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was handed both posts at a party congress last October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confirmation of his third term as president had been widely expected. The naming of a new premier and various ministers in the coming days is considered more important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new appointees are mostly expected to be Xi Jinping loyalists. This includes Li Qiang, who is tipped to serve as Mr Xi’s number two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, Mr Xi has also gained another term as the chairman of the CMC of the People’s Republic of China. There are two CMCs in the country – one is a party organisation while another is a state institution – but their make-up is usually the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Xi has solidified his rule as China reopens from his bruising zero-Covid policy that has fuelled anti-government protests. The country is also facing a falling birth rate that threatens its economic growth engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ties between Beijing and Washington remain testy, recently highlighted by allegations China had been spying on the US with balloons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Whether a strengthened Xi and increasing centralisation is sufficient to overcome these problems – or perhaps make them worse – is unknown and perhaps not knowable at present,” Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University Singapore, told the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In a sense, Xi is betting that centralisation under the party with him at the helm is a solution to these disparate issues,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The so-called Two Sessions of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) this week is closely watched as it provides a glimpse into China’s direction in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Mao Zedong, leaders in China had been limited to two terms in office. When Mr Xi had this restriction changed in 2018, it transformed him into a figure with a reach not seen since Chairman Mao.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also on Friday, the national legislature appointed Han Zheng, a 68-year-old former Politburo Standing Committee member, as vice president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The importance of the position varies since its functions are not fully defined. However, the last vice president, Wang Qishan, fronted Mr Xi’s anti-corruption campaign, Chong said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chances are that Mr Han will follow Mr Xi’s direction closely and enforce the president’s policies as necessary, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen McDonell & Joel Guinto China’s leader Xi Jinping has secured a historic third term as president from the country’s rubber-stamp parliament. It follows a consolidation of power that has made Mr Xi, 69, China’s most dominant leader in generations. In the Chinese system of governance, the functions of the president are largely ceremonial. Mr …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,183,218],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-172","category-asian-issues","category-reports-and-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5760,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5757\/revisions\/5760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}