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Xi Jinping further ascends

March 14, 2013

China's parliament has appointed Communist Party leader Xi Jinping the nation's president. Under rules on age and tenure, Hu Jintao, 70, stepped down in November from party leadership after a decade.

https://p.dw.com/p/17x2C
Xi Jinping (front), general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Li Keqiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier, arrive at the third plenary meeting of the first session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing March 10, 2013. (Photo: REUTERS/China Daily)
Image: Reuters

Xi, 59, who succeeded Hu as leader of the ruling Communist Party in November, was handed the largely ceremonial additional title of president with a vote of 99.7 percent by the 2,961 delegates to the National People's Congress.

Earlier on Thursday, delegates approved a plan to streamline government ministries and endorsed Xi as chairman of the state military commission, in addition to his current role as chief of the party's Central Military Commission. Li Yuanchao was made vice president with 96 percent.

The streamlining will abolish the Railways Ministry, marred by allegations of corruption, merging its main functions with Transport and setting up a company to handle commercial operations.

mkg/jm(AFP, dpa, AP)

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