China's Xi Jinping Elected President For Historic Third Term

China’s Xi Jinping was unanimously appointed as the President for the third term. With this, he has become the country’s longest-serving leader since founding father Mao Zedong.

According to information, thousands of delegates at the National People's Congress (NPC)in Beijing voted on Xi's appointment as president and head of the military for another five years. The process was however a formality in China's rubber-stamp parliament after Xi was confirmed as chief of the ruling Communist Party at a twice-a-decade congress in October.

All 2,952 NPC delegates cast a ballot approving a new mandate for Xi.

Earlier, the NPC had also ditched term limits, clearing the way for Xi to potentially rule for life.

Chinese media reports a sweeping set of reforms, including setting up a new financial sector watchdog and national data agency, was approved in a move that may herald tighter restrictions on key sectors of the world's Number 2 economy.

Mary Gallagher, a political science professor at the University of Michigan, said: "Xi Jinping is doing two things at the same time. He is centralizing power to the centre while also strengthening the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] at the expense of the state. Doing these two things at once is unprecedented in the reform era."

He further added that the moves could make it more difficult for local municipalities to govern themselves as they grapple with shouldering huge virus curb costs incurred under Xi's signature zero-COVID policy and slumping revenue from a slowing property market.

"Effective local governance will be more difficult under these conditions though local governments will be more compliant with the center," he further said.

According to several reports, China is slowly becoming a suffocating police state like the former Soviet Union as President Xi Jinping wanted the security apparatus under his direct grip.

There is also a possibility that a new police unit and state security organization will be created, which would be placed under the direct command of Xi, the "core" of the party's Central Committee.

Xi is also expected to beef up organizations related to state security and public security under a completely non-traditional framework.

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