BEIJING -- Chinese President Xi Jinping formally clinched an unprecedented third term on Friday, putting him on track to be among the country's most powerful leaders since Mao Zedong, amid an economic slowdown and soaring tensions with the West.
Thousands of delegates at the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing approved Xi's appointment as president and head of the military for another five years. But the process was a formality in China's rubber-stamp parliament after Xi, 69, was confirmed as chief of the ruling Communist Party at a twice-a-decade congress in October.
