Chinese President Xi Jinping was unanimously re-elected for a third term as President on the 10th. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Xi is the only president to have served three consecutive terms.
President Xi was unanimously elected in the presidential election (single candidate) held at the 3rd plenary session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) on the 10th at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. A total of 2,952 delegates participated in the vote, with no votes against or invalid ballots.
Having been elected General Secretary of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission at the Party Congress last October, President Xi was re-elected for a third consecutive five-year term as President through this vote. Previously, the presidency, like other senior state positions including the Premier of the State Council, was limited to two terms, but the constitutional amendment in 2018 removed the three-term limit.
When first elected President in 2013, Xi received 99.86% approval out of 2,956 valid votes (1 vote against and 3 abstentions), and in his 2018 re-election, he received unanimous support with 2,970 votes. Xi was also re-elected as Chairman of the Central Military Commission on this day.
Meanwhile, in the subsequent vote, Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party Central Political Bureau, was elected as Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, the equivalent of the speaker of the Chinese parliament, and Han Zheng, a member of the 'Shanghai faction' who worked in Shanghai, China's economic capital, until his promotion to the Standing Committee of the Party Central Political Bureau in 2017, was elected as Vice President. Both Zhao Leji and Han Zheng were elected unanimously in this vote.
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