Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping was elected general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission at the 18th Party Congress in 2012. He succeeded Hu Jintao as leader of the Communist Party and was elected president in March 2013. In 2018, the National People's Congress, China's parliament, abolished the term limits of the presidency effectively allowing him to stay in power for life. Born in 1953, Xi graduated from Tsinghua University in 1979 with a degree in engineering.