Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Chinese President Xi Jinping for securing another term in office, after the Communist state’s nominal legislature voted unanimously to keep him in power Saturday.
Xi’s reappointment sets the stage to make him president-for-life, as the National People’s Congress also eliminated term limits. But Putin, the longest-tenured Russian leader since Joseph Stalin, hailed Xi’s win as “a recognition of [his] efforts” to bring prosperity to China.
“This decision by the National People’s Congress of China has become another proof of your great authority, a recognition of your efforts in ensuring dynamic socioeconomic development of the country and protecting its interests on the global stage,” Putin said in a Saturday bulletin released by the Kremlin.
Putin issued his message hours before his own victory in a presidential election that saw the most prominent opposition politician in the country banned by the Russian government from running. “[E]ven his nominal opponents openly conceding that Putin will rule for as long as he pleases,” Garry Kasparov, the former Russian chess master and a long-time Putin critic, wrote in the Weekly Standard.
Xi marked the occasion by taking an oath of office for the first time in the history of the regime. “I pledge to be allegiant to the Constitution of the PRC, safeguard the Constitution’s authority, fulfill my legal obligations, be loyal to the country and the people, be committed and honest in my duty, accept the people’s supervision and work for a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful,” he said, per Xinhua, a state-owned media outlet.
Xi’s reappointment gives him another five-year term, but it comes against the backdrop of a long-term plan for China that he outlined for the NPC.
“At the Party congress, Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era was written into the CPC Constitution, and into the country’s Constitution on March 11, making it the guiding principle of China,” according to Xinhua. “He laid out a two-step approach to future development: working to basically realize socialist modernization from 2020 to 2035; developing China into a great modern socialist country from 2035 to the middle of the century.”
Putin touted his relationship with Xi as a model of “equal and mutually beneficial cooperation between leading powers,” as the Kremlin put it.
“The President of Russia conveyed to his Chinese counterpart that he would be happy to have new meetings with him, and expressed confidence in further strengthening, through reciprocal efforts, the Russia-China comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation, in filling it with new content which will contribute to the prosperity of the two friendly peoples and to greater security and stability on the Eurasian continent and in the whole world,” the bulletin said.
