The appointment came a day after the twentieth party congress, which started last Sunday. Xi was reappointed as the party’s secretary general in a closed-door vote for another five years. The procedure was just a formality, but will allow Xi Jinping to get an unprecedented third five-year term in March next year. Xi is known as the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, the founder of communist China.
In addition to being secretary-general, Xi is also president of China and has previously scrapped the rule that he can stay in that role for a maximum of two terms. He is also expected to be re-elected president in March when the Chinese parliament meets.
At the last party congress in the capital Beijing, the few hundred members of the party’s Central Committee were formally elected by delegates from across the country. Behind closed doors, the Central Committee elects in a shadowy process the members of the party’s Politburo and those of the Standing Committee, the party’s top body that usually consists of seven members. One of them is appointed Secretary-General.
Xi, 69, has been the Secretary-General of China since 2012 and President of China since 2013. He is firmly in control of the Communist Party. Since Xi took office, the People’s Republic has become increasingly self-assured vis-à-vis other countries. For example, military pressure on the nearby island of Taiwan has increased. Beijing also has almost complete control over Hong Kong, which was partly autonomous. In the interior, the Chinese authorities have opted for strict lockdowns in recent years to prevent the spread of the corona virus.
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