China has elected the country’s top leaders – Reuters

Xi Jinping, 69, has become the first Chinese leader to be elected for a third time to a five-year presidential term. Last October, at the 20th Party Congress, he was elected for five years to head the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the armed forces, two of the most important leadership positions in Chinese politics. He went from party apparatchik to leader of a global superpower.

In a speech to delegates at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which is being held alongside the NPC this week, Xi criticized Washington’s actions to “contain, encircle and suppress China”. China must muster the courage to fight back as the country faces profound and complex changes in the domestic and international landscape, he said.

Former first vice-premier of the Chinese government, Han Zheng, 68, was elected vice-president of the People’s Republic of China. A native of Shanghai, he became the youngest mayor in its history in 2003 and at one point worked with Xi Jinping, who was head of the Shanghai party committee, says CASS. In 2017, Han Zheng was given one of the seven Politburo Standing Committee (PC) seats, and in 2018 he was appointed as the first deputy premier of the PRC State Council.

Han Zheng was elected Vice President of the People’s Republic of China. Photo: Alexey Druzhinin / RIA Novosti

Zhao Leji, 66, was elected chairman of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC). Zhao Leji, former secretary of the CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, replaced Li Zhanshu who was retiring. Following the results of the 18th CPC Congress in 2012, he joined the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, at the October Congress he retained his seat on the Politburo Standing Committee, becoming the third most influential member of the Communist Party Chinese reports RIA News.

Zhao Leji was elected chairman of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress. Photo: Getty Images

The deputies also on Friday approved a plan to reform the apparatus of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China and elected 14 vice-chairmen of the NPC CP.