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Author: Charles Burton, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brock University

Since the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank tweeted last week that Canada is now officially a full member, it hasn’t exactly made headlines.

Yet this is ostensibly a prelude for trade talks with China in an increasingly protectionist global landscape. And admission wasn’t cheap: Chinese sources say Ottawa committed more than a billion dollars to the Beijing-based bank.

But China-watchers are more fixated on the dramatic changes rolling out after the just-completed National People’s Congress.

Among other moves, the annual Congress voted 2,970-to-0 to give President Xi Jinping a second five-year term and repealed a regulation barring him from seeking a third.