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Xi gets 100% of votes for new term as key ally named VP

  (Bloomberg)
Beijing, China
Sun, March 18, 2018

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Xi gets 100% of votes for new term as key ally named VP China's President Xi Jinping gives a speech at the opening session of the Chinese Communist Party's five-yearly Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct. 18, 2017. President Xi Jinping declared China is entering a (Agence France-Presse/Nicolas Asfuri)

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hina’s parliament unanimously reappointed Xi Jinping as president while installing one of his most trusted allies as vice president, highlighting how little public opposition remains to his rule.

The rubber-stamp National People’s Congress voted 2,970-to-0 to give Xi a second five-year term Saturday, days after repealing a constitutional provision that would’ve barred him from a third. Although legislative dissent is rare -- only four lawmakers withheld support for Xi’s first term in 2013 -- no president has received a unanimous vote in at least a quarter-century.

The legislature also confirmed Wang Qishan -- a well-known economic reformer who oversaw Xi’s signature anti-corruption campaign -- as vice president. Wang’s appointment was opposed by one lawmaker, who wasn’t identified. On Sunday, Li Keqiang was appointed to a second term as premier.

The votes cap months of Communist Party conclaves and pageantry that confirmed Xi’s status as arguably the world’s most powerful leader. Xi, 64, got his name written into the constitution and party charter -- putting him on a status equal to Mao Zedong -- and laid the groundwork for breaking the precedent of handing over power after two complete terms.

Moments after the vote, the party’s People’s Daily newspaper proclaimed Xi as China’s “great helmsman” in an alert to mobile phones. The history-laden honorific had previously been reserved for Mao, although some official media and party members have used variations of the term in recent months in reference to Xi.

“Xi will be chairman of everything,” said Ether Yin, a partner at advisory firm Trivium China in Beijing. “He has effectively put himself at the center of the whole country.”

While most of Xi’s power flows from his roles as party chief and supreme military commander, being president -- or “chairman” in Chinese -- gives him legal standing as head of state. The largely ceremonial role of vice president is second in succession and can carry out duties delegated by the chief executive.

Wang’s appointment to the vice presidency allows Xi to retain a trusted surrogate with connections to the US diplomatic and financial communities. He helped set up China’s first investment bank with Morgan Stanley in the 1990s and also established enduring ties with prominent Wall Street figures such as Hank Paulson.

Wang, 69, and Xi have known each other since their days as “sent down youths” in China’s countryside during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. After Xi came to power in 2012, Wang was charged with overseeing Xi’s campaign against corruption, disciplining more than 1.5 million party cadres, including the country’s retired security chief and another official once seen as a presidential contender.

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