China's President Xi Jinping is beginning another five-year term as Communist Party leader. The fact that its his third is historic -- and it cements him as China's most powerful ruler in decades.

Xi's appointment was confirmed over the weekend at a party congress in Beijing. There, he shook up the party's senior ranks -- promoting loyalists and proteges to China's top leadership, while sweeping away factional rivals. And for the first time in 25 years, there are no women holding top jobs in the Politburo.