TERM LIMIT FOR PREZ SCRAPPED, XI SET TO RULE CHINA FOR LIFE
EMPEROR XI? As many as 2,958 deputies vote in favour of changing the Constitution
BEIJING: President Xi Jinping can now continue after his tenure ends in 2023 as China on Sunday amended its constitution to remove the two-term limit, amid fears among academics and experts both in China and abroad that he is building a cult of power and personality around himself. The move effectively means that Xi could remain president for life.
BEIJING: President Xi Jinping can now continue after his tenure ends in 2023 as China on Sunday amended its Constitution to remove the two-term limit, amid fears expressed by experts at home and abroad that he is building a cult of power and personality around himself.
The move effectively means that Xi could remain president for life. As many as 2,958 deputies of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s rubber-stamp parliament, voted in favour of changing the Constitution; two voted against it and three abstained. The NPC also granted constitutional authority to the ’Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era’.
China has had a two-term limit for presidents since 1982. On Sunday, that limit was officially scrapped at the Great Hall of the People. The decision was a foregone conclusion after it was made public a week before the annual session of the NPC that started on March 5. A report in the official Xinhua news agency made it public on February 25.
Since he took over as Communist Party of China (CPC) general secretary and then as president in 2013, the 64-year-old former governor of Fujian province has gradually consolidated power, taking control of China’s key institutions. He is the chairperson of the powerful Central Military Commission and was designated the “core” of the party in 2016.
Soon after taking over, Xi launched a massive anti-corruption campaign, which, his critics say, was used for purging his political opponents, besides netting thousands of officials.
His international connectivity and infrastructure programme, the Belt and Road Initiative has garnered worldwide attention with dozens of countries joining it.
Speculation that Xi intended to stay beyond his tenure was rife in the run-up to the once-infive year CPC congress last October. The speculation got stronger when, breaking from tradition, Xi didn’t appoint a successor at the end of the October congress.
It was later revealed that Xi had presided over a meeting on the CPC politburo as early as September when it was decided to change the Constitution.
The move has faced both domestic and international criticism.
“Chinaneedsacertainamount of centralisation. But what do we do after the centralisation ? If it is back to the Mao era, of course, the centralisation is a bad thing ,” said professor Hu Xingdou, a Beijing-based expert.