On Friday at the Communist Party of China Guangxi regional congress, President Xi Jinping, who is set to win an unprecedented third term as China’s leader in a leadership reshuffle later this year, was unanimously elected as a delegate to the ruling party’s 20th national congress.
CPC leaders are essentially chosen in China, and Xi’s appointment as a delegate was more of a formality.
“The CPC congress of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was conducted in the regional capital of Nanning from Thursday to Friday,” official news agency Xinhua reported on Friday evening.
“A burst of sustained and warm applause greeted the announcement of Xi’s unanimous election at the regional congress on 22nd April’s morning,” as per the report.
Xi’s selection of Guangxi as a delegate is symbolic, as Guangxi was among China’s poorest provinces until 2017.
In November 2020, the region, which has the ‘s biggest indigenous minority population, lifted all 54 of its poverty-stricken regions out of poverty.
The regional government announced in November 2020 that the region’s last eight impoverished counties, which include six indigenous minority autonomous counties, had eliminated absolute poverty.