Xi Jinping gets a record third term, stacks leadership team with loyalists

File image of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was on October 23 re-elected as the general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China for a record third five-year term, a privilege only accorded to party founder Mao Zedong, confirming his undiminished hold over the world’s second-largest economy.

The 69-year-old Xi also introduced a new Politburo Standing Committee, China's top governing body, stacked with loyalists.

Shanghai Communist Party chief Li Qiang followed him onto the stage at the Great Hall of the People, meaning he is likely to succeed Li Keqiang as premier when he retires in March, a Reuters report said.

"I wish to thank the whole Party sincerely for the trust you have placed in us," Xi told journalists at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, promising to "work diligently in the performance of our duties to prove worthy of the great trust of our Party and our people", an AFP report quoted him as saying.

The other members of the seven-man Standing Committee are Zhao Leji and Wang Huning, who return from the previous committee, and newcomers Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi.

The Standing Committee line-up was further confirmation that Xi's grip on power was undiminished by the events of a tumultuous year, including a sharp economic slowdown, frustration over his zero-COVID policy, and China's increasing estrangement from the West, exacerbated by his support for Russia's Vladimir Putin, the Reuters report said.

Xi was also re-appointed as chairman of the Central Military Commission.

He was elected to the powerful Central Committee a day earlier by a once-in-a-five-year Congress despite crossing the official retirement age of 68 and completing 10-year tenure, news agency PTI said.

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The Central Committee members on October 23 elected a 25-member Political Bureau which picked the Standing Committee members.

In his brief closing remarks at the 20th Congress  a day earlier, Xi said that the revision of the Constitution sets out clear requirements for upholding and strengthening the party's overall leadership. "Dare to struggle, dare to win, bury your heads and work hard. Be determined to keep forging ahead," he said.

"We must be ready to withstand high winds, choppy waters and even dangerous storms," he said. "Confronted with drastic changes in the international landscape, especially external attempts to blackmail, contain, (and) blockade… China, we have put our national interests first," he said, apparently referring to the growing negativity against China in the US and West.

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Former Chinese president Hu Jintao was unexpectedly led out of the closing ceremony in a dramatic moment that disrupted the highly choreographed event.

Later in the day, state media said Hu was "not feeling well" when he was escorted out but was doing "much better" after getting some rest.

India may also have to be prepared to face a more aggressive China in South Asia, where the two countries have engaged in a tussle to establish supremacy over the years.

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Xi is already China’s most powerful leader. He is the general secretary of the Communist Party, chairman of the Central Military Commission, which allows him direct control of the People’s Liberation Army, and he is also President of China. A third term will only tighten his grip of China.