President · NPC selection

China elections · 2018-03-17 · held

Xi Jinping was elected president of the People’s Republic of China by the National People’s Congress. This was an indirect state-office selection, not a nationwide popular presidential election.

Indirect election — selection through an electoral body rather than a direct national popular vote. The record notes explain the selection process.

Related elections

• National People’s Congress · 13th term

Results: final · complete coverage · NPC selection of the state president; any figures are approval ballots, not popular votes

Our archive covers the national institutions of the People’s Republic of China. It does not include Republic of China elections or separate Hong Kong or Macao contests. National NPC totals retain the institution’s own delegations, including special administrative region delegations where applicable and its mainland-selected Taiwan delegation; this is not a record of elections conducted by Taiwan’s electorate.

The state presidency is distinct from the Communist Party general secretary, party chairman, NPC Standing Committee chair and Central Military Commission offices. Our table records the elected state president only, not simultaneous selections for those offices or for vice president. Mao’s 1949 selection as Central People’s Government chairman was a different office and is not relabelled as a presidential election.

No candidate-specific ideology attribution has been added without a reviewed source. Missing ballot figures are unknown, not zero. The country’s current legitimacy assessment is available on our country timeline and atlas; it is not backdated as an observer verdict on these historical selections.

The official report records 2,970 presidential ballots, all approving Xi Jinping. Approval share is 100% of those NPC ballots. Votes against or abstentions, when present, are ballot categories rather than rival candidates. This is neither 100% support among the population nor a measure of political competition. Absent deputies are excluded from the ballot denominator.