The rise of Chinese leader Xi Jinping

People look at a giant television screen as China's newly elected President Xi Jinping attends the fourth plenary meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People, in People Square in Shanghai March 14, 2013. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - President Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, will be re-elected to a second five-year term as president on Saturday by the rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress.

The son of Communist Party revolutionary and one-time deputy prime minister Xi Zhongxun, the younger Xi spent decades working his way up party and government ranks, but his consolidation of power since becoming head of the party in 2012 has been unprecedented.