Xi Jinping has been handed an unprecedented third term as China’s President. The appointment by the country’s rubber stamp legislature comes after the 69-year-old got another five years as head of the Chinese Communist Party and the military at the party congress held in October last year. At the ongoing session of the legislature, Xi promised to “build a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and great modern socialist country”. The appointment paves the way for Xi to become China’s longest-serving president and the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. The 10-year term limit on the presidency in the post-Mao area was followed by Xi’s predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. But Xi abolished the term limit in 2018.
