ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top leaders on Sunday congratulated President Xi Jinping for securing a third term as the general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) while describing his achievement as a “glowing tribute” to his leadership and services to his people.
Xi replaced Hu Jintao as the top CPC leader in November 2012 before becoming his country’s president.
International experts believe he is now certain to retain that position for another five-year term at the beginning of the next year.
“On behalf of the entire Pakistani nation, I congratulate President Xi Jinping on his reelection as CPC General Secretary for the 3rd term,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a Twitter post. “It is a glowing tribute to his sagacious stewardship and unwavering devotion for serving the people of China.”
The Chinese president in his acceptance speech said the world needed China.
“After more than 40 years of unflagging efforts towards reform and opening up, we have created two miracles -- rapid economic development and long-term social stability,” he continued.
Xi was viewed as highly ambitious by experts on China after he introduced the Belt and Road Initiative, a global trade and infrastructure development program encompassing nearly 150 countries over three continents, in 2013.
The program also includes Pakistan where China has heavily invested to build an “economic corridor” to benefit the two countries.
Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also congratulated Xi for securing another term as the top CPC leader.
“Heartiest felicitations to President Xi on reelection as CPC General Secretary,” he said. “It reflects enduring confidence of the Chinese nation in his sagacious leadership and befitting acknowledgement of his lifelong service to China.”
The CPC also announced other party positions in a meeting held in the Great Hall of the People at the western edge of Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
