Leaders in China used to be limited to two terms in office, but President Xi had this restriction removed in 2018. In 2022, after ten years in power, XI Jinping secured a third term as China's president.
While it has been the custom for top politicians to retire at the age of 68, Xi reached this age in 2021, and has continued to serve.
Xi's success in reducing poverty, increasing infrastructure and strengthening the economy, has led him to have many supporters.
Xi has a firm grip on the control of China and observers believe his leadership over the years has become more and more authoritarian.
Xi is in a position of great power. He holds both position of General Secretary of the CCP and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC).
n 2015, President Xi overhauled the structure of the military. He abolished the four military headquarters - staff, politics, logistics and armaments - and replaced them with 15 smaller agencies. These agencies now report directly to the CMC, centralising control and preventing people further down the organisation from gaining significant power.
Since 2020 Xi has used his anti-corruption campaign to remove security officials and even member of the Politburo Standing Committee. Now the security agencies are run almost exclusively by officials who share personal history with Xi.
Mr Xi has also put loyalists in positions of power in regional, provincial and metropolitan government.
