BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping was elected to a second term with 100 per cent of the vote on Saturday (March 17), days after the lifting of presidential term limits allowed him to stay in office indefinitely.
Mr Xi, 64, was also elected chairman of the state Central Military Commission (CMC), securing all 2,970 ballots cast at Saturday's (March 17) meeting of the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), or Parliament.
Together with his re-election as Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary and appointment as chairman of the party CMC last October, he has completed his hold on power over party and state.
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His allies Wang Qishan, 69, and Li Zhanshu, 67, were elected Vice-President and chairman of the National People's Congress, or Parliament, with 99.9 per cent and 100 per cent of the vote respectively.
Last Wednesday, Mr Wang Yang was also unanimously elected chairman of the top political advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
If Mr Xi's vote share had fallen short of 100 per cent, it would have shown "there are a few very courageous individuals", said Professor Steve Tsang of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
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At the party's five-yearly national congress last October, his political thought - the Xi Jinping Thought On Socialism With Chinese Characteristics For A New Era - was written into the party Constitution. No other leader except Mao had had their guiding theory written into the charter while still in office.
It was also written into the state Constitution last Sunday.
Mr Xi has chosen as his vice-president Mr Wang, hitherto his anti-corruption czar, at a time when the external environment is becoming more difficult for China. Mr Wang is expected to handle China's foreign policy and, in particular, its relationship with the United States.
Not only will he have to deal with a looming trade war with the US, but Washington has also named China as its strategic competitor.
There has also been pushback against Mr Xi's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to build infrastructure along trade routes linking China to Europe, with countries like Germany regarding it as way for China to practise new imperialism, noted Professor Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute.
Australia, Japan, India and the US have started a security dialogue and proposed a version of the BRI to balance China, he added.
As for what Mr Xi might be focusing on domestically in the next few years, Prof Zheng thinks he will be working on institutional reforms to integrate the party with the state.
This, Prof Zheng said, would have a significant impact on China with party domination of the state, economy and society.
Mr Xi, in his speech at last October's congress, had said: "Government, military, society and schools, east, south, west, north and centre, the party leads everything."
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