PhotoBlog - national-peoples-congress

Mar

2013

11:20am, EDT

Sign here, Mr. President: China's Xi completes rise to the top

Feng Li / Getty Images

A delegate gets the newly-elected Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and incoming Premier Li Keqiang, right, to sign autographs after the election of the new president on March 14, 2013 in Beijing.

Reuters reports — China's parliament formally elected heir-in-waiting Xi Jinping president on Thursday, completing the country's second orderly political succession since the Communist Party took power in 1949.

The largely rubber-stamp National People's Congress chose Xi in a tightly scripted ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing, putting the final seal of approval on a generational transition of power.

There was virtually no opposition among the carefully selected legislators to Xi becoming president. Xi drew just one no vote and three abstentions from the almost 3,000 delegates. Read the full story.

Feng Li / Getty Images

China's newly-elected President Xi Jinping, right, shakes hands with former President Hu Jintao, left, as other delegates clap during the fourth plenary meeting of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People on March 14, 2013 in Beijing.

China's president-in-waiting Xi Jinping returns to Iowa

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Delegates extend many hands at China’s changing of the guard

A Chinese hostess, who serves delegates of National People's Congress, supervises her colleagues posing for a souvenir photograph on Tiananmen Square during a plenary session of the NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on March 8. The outgoing head of China's legislature has praised the body for upholding the ruling Communist Party's leading role and for rejecting Western models of multiparty democracy.

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China's tea party

China's National People's Congress is not renowned for dramatic speeches or vigorous debate — the highlight Friday was a far-from-headline-grabbing reaffirmation that the government will not deviate from its socialist path.

At times this week, the annual session of China's parliament has seemed like one big yawn for the 3,000 hand-picked delegates. But as they settle in for the next plenary meeting, they can at least be assured that there are gallons of tea to sustain them in the days ahead.

Read more about the Congress in The Economist and at Time's Global Spin blog.

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Sign here, Mr. President: China's Xi completes rise to the top

Delegates extend many hands at China’s changing of the guard

Celebrities attend China's National People's Congress

China's tea party