China: Xi Jinping elected President for 3rd term

On Friday, Xi Jinping was unanimously appointed as the President of China for the third time. His third term made him the country’s longest-serving leader since founding father Mao Zedong.

As per reports, thousands of delegates at the National People’s Congress in Beijing voted for Xi’s appointment as the president and head of the military for another 5 years. 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.

An political science professor from the University of Michigan, Mary Gallagher, said that, “Xi Jinping is doing two things at the same time. He is centralizing power to the centre while also strengthening the CCP at the expense of the state. Doing these two things at once is unprecedented in the reform era.”

“Effective local governance will be more difficult under these conditions though local governments will be more compliant with the center,” Gallagher further added.