China proposes extended rule for president

CHINA’S ruling Communist Party is seeking to remove a two-term limit on presidencies, paving the way for Xi Jinping to remain in office beyond 2023 and perhaps for life.

The official Xinhua news agency said yesterday that the party had proposed to “remove the expression” that the president and vice-president “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms” from the country’s constitution.

Experts said it was confirmation that Beijing had no interest in delivering real democracy. Steven Tsang, the director of the China Institute at SOAS, University of London told The Daily Telegraph: “Democratisation was never on the agenda under the Communist Party, which is a consultative Leninist system, one that fundamentally rejects liberal democracy, despite its claim that China is democratic ‘with Chinese characteristics’.”

Additional reporting by Christine Wei