Xi Jinping re-elected as General Secretary of Communist Party of China for record third term

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping was on Sunday re-elected as the General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China for a record third five-year term, a privilege only accorded to party founder Mao Zedong. Xi, 69, was elected to the powerful Central Committee a day earlier by a once-in-a-five-year Congress despite crossing the official retirement age of 68 and completing 10-year tenure. Several senior leaders including the number two leader Premier Li Keqiang either retired or failed to make it to the Central Committee resulting in a major shakeup of China's politics and government.

The Central Committee members on Sunday elected a 25-member Political Bureau which picked the Standing Committee members to govern the country.

Soon after his election, Xi appeared before the media here on Sunday along with the newly elected Standing Committee.

Xi, in his brief closing remarks at the 20th Congress on Saturday, said that the revision of the Constitution sets out clear requirements for upholding and strengthening the party's overall leadership.

"Dare to struggle, dare to win, bury your heads and work hard. Be determined to keep forging ahead," he said.

"We must be ready to withstand high winds, choppy waters and even dangerous storms," he said.

"Confronted with drastic changes in the international landscape, especially external attempts to blackmail, contain, (and) blockade... China, we have put our national interests first," he said, apparently referring to the growing negativity against China in the US and West.

Jinping was elected general secretary at the committee's first plenary session held on Sunday. The session, presided over by Xi, was attended by 203 members of the CPC Central Committee and 168 alternate members.

Xi was also named chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission (CMC), the overall high command of the Chinese military at the session.

The CPC also named the new seven-member Standing Committee, its inner circle of power.

The new seven-member Standing Committee is packed with Xi's loyalists.

The members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee elected at the session are Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Also elected were members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the session, which endorsed the members of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat nominated by the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The session also named the members of the CMC.

The session approved the secretary, deputy secretaries and members of the Standing Committee of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) elected at the first plenary session of the 20th CCDI.