Xi Jinping
Xi Jinping is elected CCP general secretary and Party military commission chairman
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗Hu Jintao surrendered military command on the same day he gave up the party leadership — a sharper break than his own predecessor had made.
A plenum, not the congress
At the first plenary session of the Chinese Communist Party's 18th Central Committee in Beijing on 15 November 2012, Xi Jinping was elected general secretary of the Central Committee.
The Party Congress that met from 8 to 14 November had not elected him. It elected the Central Committee, and that body's first plenum — attended by 205 full members and 171 alternates — made the choice the next morning.
The same plenum selected the 25-member Politburo and its seven-member Standing Committee: Xi, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli.
The military chair moved with the job
The plenum also made Xi chairman of the CCP Central Military Commission, so Hu Jintao relinquished the party and military posts together instead of keeping military command after leaving the general secretaryship.
That was a cleaner handover than Jiang Zemin's, who had held the military chair for two more years after his own succession.
Xi then led the other six Standing Committee members onto a stage at the Great Hall of the People to meet Chinese and foreign journalists, and introduced the new central leadership.
Party leader, not yet president
Xi did not become president of the People's Republic that day. He remained vice president until the National People's Congress elected him president on 14 March 2013.
General secretary, PRC president and the chairmanships of the two Central Military Commissions are distinct offices, so “dual assumption of party and state power” does not describe 15 November 2012.
Xi became China's top political leader four months before he became China's president.
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Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited
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