Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, was elected president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and chairman of the PRC Central Military Commission (CMC) on Thursday.

The plenary meeting of the first session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) also elected Zhang Dejiang chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.

Li Yuanchao was elected vice-president of the PRC.

Elected to vice chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee were Li Jianguo, Wang Shengjun, Chen Changzhi, Yan Junqi, Wang Chen, Shen Yueyue, Ji Bingxuan, Zhang Ping, Qiangba Puncog, Arken Imirbaki, Wan Exiang, Zhang Baowen and Chen Zhu.

The post of secretary-general of the NPC Standing Committee went to Wang Chen (concurrent).

Also elected were 161 members of the 12th NPC Standing Committee.

According to the rules of election and appointment adopted at the NPC session, the elections of chairman, vice-chairpersons and secretary-general of the 12th NPC Standing Committee, president and vice-president of the PRC, and chairman of the CMC are non-competitive.

And the elections of the NPC Standing Committee members are competitive. This time, 161 members were elected out of 174 candidates, bringing the 7-percent margin in the previous election five years ago to 8 percent.

Also at the meeting, NPC deputies adopted a massive cabinet restructuring and streamlining plan which aimed to reduce bureaucracy and make the government more efficient.