'Two sessions' close: Xi Jinping launches third term with nationalist tones

Chinese president envisages a greater role for the country in global affairs. Diplomatic blow with mediation between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Xi: Communist China has erased "national humiliation". Supreme leader fills positions of power with his men.

Beijing (AsiaNews) - The annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), which approved Xi Jinping's third term in power, closed today with nationalist overtones and the country's intention to play a greater role in global affairs.

Together with the Chinese People's Consultative Political Conference (CPPCC), which is meeting concurrently these days for the 'two sessions' (Lianghui), the 'Parliament' is called upon to formalise decisions already taken by President Xi and the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In his closing speech at the meeting, Xi emphasised the future prospects of national foreign policy. The country's economy is struggling to recover after three years of hard lockdown, and the supreme leader focused on diplomatic successes: on 10 March came the announcement that Beijing had brokered the signing of an agreement between Iran and Arabia to resume diplomatic relations after a seven-year halt.

Extolling the role of the Party, Xi said that before the CCP came to power in 1949, China was a 'semi-colonial, semi-feudal country, bullied by foreign forces'. Now, is his comment, the Chinese 'have erased the national humiliation'.

In recent days Xi and his men have attacked the US more sharply than usual, accusing it of wanting to contain China in order to suppress it. For this, the Chinese military must be modernised and transformed into a 'Great Wall of Steel'.

Xi emphasised that to achieve the goal, the nation must strengthen its technological self-sufficiency: a response to Washington, which is blocking Beijing's access to state-of-the-art microchips and other advanced technologies with some success.

On the domestic front, in line with expectations Xi has placed his allies in key positions of power. Li Qiang replaces Premier Li Keqiang by promising more attention to the private sector, which fears a new regulatory crackdown after those in the hi-tech and education sectors.

Ding Xuexiang is the new executive vice-premier; Zhao Leji will lead the NPC, while Wang Huning is now head of the CPPCC: together with Xi, Cai Qi and Li Xi, the four are all members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the real decision-making body in China's political system.