GeneChing
03-15-2013, 09:32 AM
Xi Jinping anointed president of China (http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Xi-Jinping-anointed-president-of-China-4356663.php)
New York Times
Updated 10:37 pm, Thursday, March 14, 2013
http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/20/40/07/4325872/3/628x471.jpg
Xi Jinping stands as he assumes presidency after previously being named head of the Communist Party and the military. Photo: Alexander F. Yuan, Associated Press
Xi Jinping, the new leader of the Communist Party, assumed the presidency of China on Thursday, completing his formal transition to power. He did so at a legislative meeting that has signaled a more responsive approach to an impatient public, while defending the party's top-down control.
The National People's Congress anointed Xi as president four months after he was appointed as Communist Party general secretary and chairman of the Central Military Commission, putting him at the top of all three major power centers in China: the party, the army and the state.
There was never any doubt that compliant delegates to the annual parliament would overwhelmingly endorse Xi for president. They also named his ally Li Yuanchao as vice president. Only one of the 2,956 delegates who cast valid ballots in the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday voted against Xi; three abstained.
The new president faces conflicting expectations of how he will apply the power in his hands - expectations that he kindled himself. Since he succeeded Hu Jintao as party leader in November, he has used meetings, speeches and visits to a frenetic coastal city and a dirt-poor village to signal that he wants some economic liberalization, more room for citizens to criticize the government and a crackdown on the official corruption that has increasingly infuriated Chinese citizens.
Yet Xi has also rejected any turn to Western-inspired political liberalization and has demanded utter loyalty from officials and the military.
"I think that he's attracted to the idea of a kind of enlightened dictatorship, or neo-authoritarianism. He rejects fundamental political reform, but he wants a cleaner, more efficient government that is closer to the public," said Li Weidong, a former magazine editor in Beijing who is a prominent commentator on politics.
Xi, 59, is the son of a Communist Party official who served under Mao Zedong and became a supporter of Deng Xiaoping's reforms to curtail party controls and nurture markets. Li Yuanchao, the vice president, is also the "princeling" son of a senior cadre.
Before the parliament session ends Sunday, it will also appoint Li Keqiang as prime minister Friday, succeeding Wen Jiabao.
"Only one of the 2,956 delegates who cast valid ballots in the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday voted against Xi" There's one chicom who's got some serious balls.
New York Times
Updated 10:37 pm, Thursday, March 14, 2013
http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/20/40/07/4325872/3/628x471.jpg
Xi Jinping stands as he assumes presidency after previously being named head of the Communist Party and the military. Photo: Alexander F. Yuan, Associated Press
Xi Jinping, the new leader of the Communist Party, assumed the presidency of China on Thursday, completing his formal transition to power. He did so at a legislative meeting that has signaled a more responsive approach to an impatient public, while defending the party's top-down control.
The National People's Congress anointed Xi as president four months after he was appointed as Communist Party general secretary and chairman of the Central Military Commission, putting him at the top of all three major power centers in China: the party, the army and the state.
There was never any doubt that compliant delegates to the annual parliament would overwhelmingly endorse Xi for president. They also named his ally Li Yuanchao as vice president. Only one of the 2,956 delegates who cast valid ballots in the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday voted against Xi; three abstained.
The new president faces conflicting expectations of how he will apply the power in his hands - expectations that he kindled himself. Since he succeeded Hu Jintao as party leader in November, he has used meetings, speeches and visits to a frenetic coastal city and a dirt-poor village to signal that he wants some economic liberalization, more room for citizens to criticize the government and a crackdown on the official corruption that has increasingly infuriated Chinese citizens.
Yet Xi has also rejected any turn to Western-inspired political liberalization and has demanded utter loyalty from officials and the military.
"I think that he's attracted to the idea of a kind of enlightened dictatorship, or neo-authoritarianism. He rejects fundamental political reform, but he wants a cleaner, more efficient government that is closer to the public," said Li Weidong, a former magazine editor in Beijing who is a prominent commentator on politics.
Xi, 59, is the son of a Communist Party official who served under Mao Zedong and became a supporter of Deng Xiaoping's reforms to curtail party controls and nurture markets. Li Yuanchao, the vice president, is also the "princeling" son of a senior cadre.
Before the parliament session ends Sunday, it will also appoint Li Keqiang as prime minister Friday, succeeding Wen Jiabao.
"Only one of the 2,956 delegates who cast valid ballots in the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday voted against Xi" There's one chicom who's got some serious balls.