Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Thursday, March 14, 2013

China's new leaders

It might not seem like news. The decisions were made years ago. The leaders were introduced during the Party Congress. But, it's finally official because the NPC has voted.

China's parliament elects new state leadership

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, was elected president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and chairman of the PRC Central Military Commission (CMC) on Thursday.

Xi Jinping

When Liu Yunshan, executive chairman of the presidium for the first session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC), announced the election results, Xi stood up and bowed to nearly 3,000 NPC deputies in the Great Hall of the People.

Amid thundering applause, he shook hands with Hu Jintao, who had served as head of state since 2003…

A total of 2,963 deputies participated in the secret ballot under the supervision of 35 election monitors.

In the conference hall, 28 ballot boxes had been installed for the elections. Each deputy cast four ballots -- crimson for president and vice president, bright red for CMC chairman, purple for leaders of the NPC Standing Committee and orange for members of the NPC Standing Committee.

According to the election and appointment rules adopted at the NPC session, the elections of chairman, vice chairpersons and secretary-general of the 12th NPC Standing Committee, president and vice-president of the PRC, and chairman of the CMC are non-competitive…