Full coverage: 2017 NPC & CPPCC Sessions

STRONG LEADERSHIP

Xi's governance thoughts, ranging from economic and social reform to foreign affairs and military transformation, have been greatly influencing the country's course.

In the economic sphere, Xi has led the country to achieve a remarkable growth. The country remains the top engine of global growth, with the International Monetary Fund predicting China's contribution would account for 39 percent of the world's economic expansion in 2016.

China reported 6.7 percent GDP growth in 2016, outpacing most major economies in the world.

Xi has called the current phase of growth the "new normal," as China shifts to a more sustainable development and distributes the benefits more evenly.

To ensure this crucial rebalancing is successful, Xi is advocating "a new political economy," which draws on and develops Marxist thought.

Supply-side structural reform is key to understanding the new political economy and China's future development. Fundamentally different from the "supply-side economics" in the West that focuses on tax cuts, China's supply-side structural reform involves a set of measures including dissolving overcapacity and developing the real economy.

Xi has led the country as it rolls out reforms across all sectors that advance state governance, such as consultative democracy and rule of law.

The reform-minded president also heads leading groups and commissions covering key areas including finance and economic affairs, national security, Internet security and informatization, as well as military and civilian integration. The mechanism is believed to help strengthen centralized and unified leadership of the Party in state governance.

Xi stresses placing power into an institutional cage. The decision to establish the national supervision commission to place the use of power under close supervision exemplifies this model.

To build a clean and advanced ruling party, Xi has carried out a sweeping campaign against corruption, which he warned could lead to the collapse of the Party and the downfall of the state. Since Xi took the helm of the Party, the anti-corruption fight has gained "crushing momentum" and earned popular support by netting at least 240 centrally administered officials and more than 1 million low level officials for violating CPC and government rules.

Safeguarding Xi's core status is "a political issue of the utmost importance," said senior local officials at the recently concluded sessions of legislative and political advisory bodies in China's 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.