China’s Xi to begin historic third term with October coronation

Chinese President Party Xi Jinping is set to win an unprecedented third term in leadership next month. 

The National People’s Congress, the Chinese Communist Party’s highest legislative body, will meet Oct. 16 at the end of the congress’s five year political term. 

Xi, a CCP heavyweight, will almost certainly secure the required votes to maintain office and continue on into his third term.

“It was stressed at the meeting that the 20th CPC National Congress is a congress of great significance to be convened at a crucial moment,” state media outlet People’s Daily said of the upcoming congress, “as the whole Party and the entire nation embark on a new journey toward building a modern socialist country in all respects, and advance toward the Second Centenary Goal.”

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Xi, 69, has become the most influential leader of the CCP since its founder, Mao Zedong, who led a successful revolution founding the People’s Republic of China.

The announcement via People’s Daily boasted a nationalist and proudly ideological tone, saying, “The congress will hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, uphold Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents and the Scientific Outlook on Development, and thoroughly implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.”

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Despite political damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a collapsing property sector and a weakened influence on Taiwan, the congress is all but certain to re-elect Xi. 

Xi has held on to the party’s fidelity through the last five years of turmoil with a series of successes — growing international influence, massive leaps in natural resource infrastructure in Africa and an iron fist governance that has brought Hong Kong to heel.

Xi saw the biggest threat to Chinese international power earlier this month when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., landed on the island of Taiwan after weeks of international speculation and threats of retaliation from the CCP.

Pelosi, who was conducting an extensive tour of multiple allied nations in Asia, touched down in Taiwan despite repeated threats to the speaker’s safety.

Since her departure, multiple high-profile U.S. lawmakers have run victory laps to the disputed island territory, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey.