General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping was elected Chinese president Thursday, March 14 morning at the session of the 12th National People's Congress, according to RIA Novosti.
Xi, who replaced Hu Jintao in this post, was also elected the chairman of the Central Military Commission of China.
The son of a senior Communist Party member and revolutionary hero, who was later purged from the party, Xi studied chemical engineering at the prestigious Tsinghua University.
After graduating, he rose through the ranks. He also has some military experience: he served as secretary to vice premier and Central Military Commission secretary-general, Geng Biao, his father’s former subordinate.
Xi, 59, is married to celebrity Peng Liyuan, a famous Chinese People’s Liberation Army singer. U.S. diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks in 2010 described Xi as “a fan of Hollywood World War II movies,” and quoted him as saying that Chinese moviemakers neglect “values they should promote.”
