Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping was elected general secretary of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) for a precedent-breaking third term at the committee’s first plenary session held on Sunday, according to a communique.
The session, presided over by Xi, was attended by 203 members of the 20th CPC Central Committee and 168 alternate members.
Xi was also named chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission at the session.
The members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee elected at the session are Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi.
Also elected were members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the session, which endorsed the members of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat nominated by the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
The session named the members of the Central Military Commission.
The session approved the secretary, deputy secretaries and members of the Standing Committee of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) elected at the first plenary session of the 20th CCDI.
Among the first world leaders to congratulate Xi were North Korean chief Kim Jong Un, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, with whom Xi announced a limitless partnership earlier this year.
“The results of the Party Congress fully confirm your high political authority, as well as the unity of the party you lead,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin.
As the second-ranked member after Xi, Li Qiang, the party secretary of Shanghai, is likely to be appointed the next premier when Li Keqiang steps down from premiership in March after two terms. With agency inputs
