BEIJING - Chinese supremo Xi Jinping is now the country's new state president, being picked by nearly 3,000 national legislators on Thursday morning and completing the last leg of the country's once-a-decade power transfer.

Mr Xi scored 2,952 votes of the total 2,956 valid votes cast. The latest role makes it a hat-trick of hats for President Xi, who had succeeded Mr Hu Jintao as the Communist Party general secretary and its Central Military Commission chairman at the 18th Party Congress last November.

In a voting session held at the Great Hall of People, China also picked former organisation chief Li Yuanchao as its new state vice-president and the first non-Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) member since 1998 to hold this post.

The appointment for Mr Li, who got 2,839 support votes, with 89 opposing and 37 abstaining, ended months of speculation that the post would go to fifth-ranked PSC member Liu Yunshan.