Explained: Xi Jinping's rule in China extended. A look at his political career so far

Xi Jinping on Friday (March 10) secured an unprecedented third five-year presidential term in China, further tightening his control as the country faces increasing challenges at home and globally. Nearly 3,000 members of Parliament, the National People's Congress, voted unanimously for Xi in an election where there was no other candidate. 

With this, Xi, 69, has become China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, who founded the People's Republic, the news agency Reuters reported on Friday. He extends his tenure as president amid increasingly adversarial relations with the United States and western countries over Taiwan, China's backing of Russia, trade and human rights. 

Here's a look at Xi Jinping's political career so far:

The beginnings

Xi Jinping was born on June 15, 1953, to Xi Zhongxun and Qi Xin. His father, Xi Zhongxun, was a communist revolutionary and a political leader. According to the DW, Zhongxun was purged in 1962 and was then persecuted and jailed during the cultural revolution in China. Xi Jinping had applied to join the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) several times but was rejected due to his father's political history. He was finally accepted as a member of the CCP in 1974, serving as branch secretary and this marked the beginning of his career in politics, according to the DW. 

From 1975 to 1979, Xi studied chemical engineering at the Tsinghua University. After graduation, he worked as a secretary for Geng Biao, the then-vice premier and minister of national defence in the Chinese government. 

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But in 1982, Xi gave up this post and started working as the CCP's secretary in the Herbei province. As the years passed, he was elevated to more senior roles such as numerous provincial governor positions and then the party's chief in Shanghai. In contrast to his father, Xi had a reputation for prudence and for following the party line. 

In October 2007, he was elected as one of the nine members of the standing committee of CCP's political bureau, the highest ruling body in the party. 

And a year later, Xi Jinping was elected as the vice president of China. As vice president, Xi focused on conservation efforts and improving foreign relations as he visited several countries including the United States, Germany, Turkey and Japan. 

The president of China

On November 15, 2012, Xi Jinping was elected as the general secretary of the CCP and chairman of the Central Military Commission by the 18th Central Committee of the party, which informally made him China's leader. And on March 14, 2013, Xi was officially elected as the country's president. In 2018, China's parliament elected him for a second term and unanimously voted in favour of an amendment to the Constitution that removed presidential term limits. 

Previously, China had a limit of two terms but the amendment allowed Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely. 

As president, Xi called for the great rejuvenation of China and for the country to take its due place in the world. However, his leadership has been marked by intolerance for dissent, and a desire to control which has infiltrated almost every aspect of life in modern China. 

Xi has cracked down on civil society movements, independent media and academic freedoms, overseen alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, and promoted a far more aggressive foreign policy than his predecessor Hu Jintao. He has also been severely criticised by governments and health organisations for the handling of the Covid pandemic. 

The 69-year-old Xi has used nationalism as a tool for his own and the CCP's legitimacy among the population. 

Economic challenges that Xi faces now

With Xi securing a third presidential term, he now has to face many economic challenges. China, which is the world's second-largest economy, is facing a tough economic recovery from the three years of the government's zero-Covid policy, a fragile confidence among consumers and businesses and a weak international demand for Chinese exports, a report by the news agency Reuters said. 

The abrupt ending of the zero-Covid policy led to a spike in infections and deaths. Several regions of China saw their hospitals overburdened by infected patients, a shortage of antiviral medicines and crematoriums being full. 

In 2022, China's economy grew just three per cent, one of its worst performances in decades. During a parliament session, the government set a modest growth target for this year of just around five per cent.

Willy Lam, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a think tank based in the United States, said that in the third term as China's president, Xi Jinping would need to focus on economic revival. 

"But if he (Xi Jinping) 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 won't be encouraging," Lam told Reuters. 

(With inputs from agencies)

 

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