NUNZIUM

Xi Jinping was born in Beijing, China, on June 15, 1953. His father, Xi Zhongxun, was a prominent revolutionary leader and one of the founding members of the Communist Party of China. In 1969, during the Cultural Revolution, Xi Jinping was sent to live and work in rural China as part of a government program to reeducate urban youth. He spent several years doing manual labour and studying Marxist ideology. In the 1970s, Xi Jinping returned to Beijing and began his political career in various government positions. He became the party secretary of Fujian Province in 1999. Then he moved on to become the party secretary of Zhejiang Province in 2002.

In 2007, Xi Jinping was elected to the Politburo Standing Committee, the highest decision-making body of the Communist Party of China. He was seen as a rising star in the party and was widely expected to succeed Hu Jintao as China's top leader. In 2012, he became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, making him the supreme leader of China. He became the President of China in 2013. In 2018, the National People's Congress abolished term limits for the presidency, allowing Xi to remain in power indefinitely. Today March 10, Xi Jinping secured a precedent-breaking third term as president of China during a parliamentary session in which he tightened his control of the world's second-largest economy as it emerges from a COVID slump and diplomatic challenges mount. Nearly 3,000 members of China's rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), voted unanimously in the Great Hall of the People for the 69-year-old Xi in an election without any other candidate.

During his tenure, Xi has launched a massive anti-corruption campaign, cracked down on dissent and human rights activists, and promoted the Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure development strategy. He has also increased China's military assertiveness in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait and implemented policies to strengthen China's economy and enhance its technological capabilities. With this third term confirmation, Xi is taking China on a more authoritarian path since assuming control a decade ago, amid increasingly adversarial relations with the U.S. and its allies over Taiwan, Beijing's backing of Russia, trade and human rights. Russian President Vladimir Putin was among the first foreign leaders to congratulate Xi on his third term. The two sealed a "no limits" partnership between China and Russia in February last year, days before Russia invaded Ukraine.