Xi Jinping elected as President of China for a historic 3rd time

Xi Jinping was handed a third term as Chinese president on Friday, capping a rise that has seen him become the country's most powerful leader in generations. The appointment by China's rubber-stamp parliament comes after Xi locked in another five years as head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in October. Since then, the 69-year-old Xi has weathered widespread protests over his zero-Covid policy and the deaths of countless people after its abandonment.

Those issues have been avoided at this week's National People's Congress (NPC), a carefully choreographed event that is also set to appoint Xi ally Li Qiang as the new premier. On Friday, delegates handed Xi a third term as China's president and re-elected him as head of the country's Central Military Commission in a unanimous vote.

Beijing's Great Hall of the People, a cavernous state building on the edge of Tiananmen Square, was adorned with crimson carpets and banners for the landmark vote, with a military band providing background music. A digital monitor on the edge of the stage proclaimed the final tally -- all 2,952 votes had been cast in favor of awarding Xi another term in office.

Xi's re-election is the culmination of a remarkable rise in which he has gone from a relatively little-known party apparatchik to the leader of a rising global power. His coronation sets him up to become communist China's longest-serving president, and means Xi could rule well into his seventies -- if no challenger emerges.