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| Newly-elected Chinese President Xi Jinping holds hands with former president Hu Jintao in Beijing on March 14, 2013. (AFP Photo) |
Beijing.
China’s parliament named Xi Jinping as president Thursday, four months after he
took charge of the Communist Party with pledges of reform that have raised
hopes but so far yielded little change.
Top
officials of the world’s most populous nation, including Xi himself, took part
in a leadership vote at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, taking turns
to place red papers into ballot boxes, but the outcome was never in doubt.
“Now I
announce comrade Xi Jinping is selected as president of the People’s Republic
of China,” said Liu Yunshan, a top official of the ruling party who chaired the
session at the National People’s Congress, the rubber-stamp parliament.
To loud
applause, Xi, 59, stood up and bowed to the delegates and the platform, before
shaking hands with other officials and walking off the stage.
Li
Yuanchao, a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo but not of its top
seven-member Standing Committee, and who is seen as having reformist leanings,
was named as vice-president, a largely symbolic post.
Xi’s
government appointment was effectively guaranteed by his party position.
He formally
takes the reins of the world’s second-largest economy with Li Keqiang, who is
due to be anointed as premier on Friday, marking the final step in the nation’s
once-in-a-decade power handover.
The party
leadership is the real source of authority in China, but the title of head of
state will increase Xi’s public and international role.
Since he
took the top Communist post in November, Xi has pledged to preserve the ruling
party’s supremacy, as well as improve livelihoods, implement economic reforms,
and crack down on corruption, which incenses popular opinion.
In the
months since Xi’s promotion a parade of lower-level officials have been exposed
for graft in efforts that have been lauded in state media as proof of a
crackdown.
However,
despite the promises on hot issues such as graft and environmental protection
which could prove a threat to party rule, observers say that concrete reforms
would be complex and will not be swiftly introduced.
Officially,
Xi is being elected for a five-year term, but barring extraordinary events the
59-year-old will hold the position for a decade.
Xi has
already become head of China’s top military body, the Central Military
Commission, unlike his predecessor Hu Jintao, who at the same stage in the
previous transition in 2003 was still substantially overshadowed by Jiang
Zemin.
“In recent
memory there is no comparable figure who has such power in his hand [so
quickly],” said Willy Lam, a politics expert at the Chinese University of Hong
Kong.
Xi is the
son of one of China’s most esteemed generals and known as a “princeling”, the
name given to relations of China’s first generation of Communist leaders, who
grew up immersed in the ruling party’s upper echelons.
But he has
threatened to target not only lowly “flies” but also top-ranking “tigers” in
corruption crackdowns, warning that graft could “kill the party.”
An
investigation by US news agency Bloomberg found that Xi’s family had amassed
hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, casting doubt on his ability to
implement major reforms which might threaten their business interests. There
was no accusation of wrongdoing on his part.
Agence France-Presse
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Li Keqiang
(left), the new premier of China, shakes hands with
the outgoing officeholder,
Wen Jiabao, with new President Xi Jinping
in the foreground. Photograph:
Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty
|
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