China will scrap limit on presidential term, meaning Xi Jinping can stay on

[Kontinuum]

China will remove the constitutional restriction for the maximum number of terms the president and vice-president can serve, Xinhua reported on Sunday, paving the way for President Xi Jinping to stay on beyond 2023.

In a brief report, the official news agency said the Communist 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.

The announcement follows a Politburo meeting on Saturday and comes ahead of Monday’s three-day Central Committee plenum to discuss personnel and other proposed institutional changes to be tabled at the upcoming annual parliamentary gathering in Beijing.

Minutes after the announcement, Xinhua reported that the party proposed to write Xi’s political theory – Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era – into the constitution. It also planned to list the new super anti-graft body, the National Supervisory Commission, as a new state agency in the constitution.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/polic...erm-meaning-xi

[Vargur]

What's the news here?
He's probably looking to fulfil decades long plans, albeit his age isn't really low.

[Cerilis]

Just autocrat things~

[Acidbaron]

What's the news here?
He's probably looking to fulfil decades long plans, albeit his age isn't really low.

The limit is there for a reason, and no plan or reason is good enough to abolish this rule. Pair this with other changes recently this is more going to simply lead him to become an absolute ruler, much like their southern neighbor don't see how anyway can even begin to defend here.

[Vankrys]

Wet dream of Vladimir Putin.

[Deletedaccount1]

The limit is there for a reason, and no plan or reason is good enough to abolish this rule. Pair this with other changes recently this is more going to simply lead him to become an absolute ruler, much like their southern neighbor don't see how anyway can even begin to defend here.

Which southern neighbor?

[Acidbaron]

Which southern neighbor?

If you to be told this i don't believe these kind of discussions are ones you would do well in.

[Vargur]

The limit is there for a reason, and no plan or reason is good enough to abolish this rule. Pair this with other changes recently this is more going to simply lead him to become an absolute ruler, much like their southern neighbor don't see how anyway can even begin to defend here.

If he's chosen again, yes. I'm saying it's not a problem in China, just business as usual.

[Deletedaccount1]

If you to be told this i don't believe these kind of discussions are ones you would do well in.

China has many southern neighbors and I'm not sure any of them have an absolute ruler.

[NED funded]

If he's chosen again, yes. I'm saying it's not a problem in China, just business as usual.

I feel like you are not understanding how China works. During Deng's chairmanship, one of the things he did was decentralize power from the party to local officials and so on, then reformed the party so as to elect the succesor of his succesor (although an unofficial rule). This is how power in China has been transfered and what has allowed China to attain certain stability and focus on the country rather than on individuals after Mao. Xi is breaking with this tradition and attaining impressive ammounts of power recentely, as demonstrated during the Party Congress and now. He is becoming an authoritarian, which begs the question why is the party so afraid that they give almot Mao-like powers to Xi.

Edit: Although , I don't understand why he is doing this, since the position of president doesn't matter anyway, maybe for vanity???

[Deletedaccount1]

Oh you mean North Korea? I guess that counts as southern.

[Macaquerie]

I feel like you are not understanding how China works. During Deng's chairmanship, one of the things he did was decentralize power from the party to local officials and so on, then reformed the party so as to elect the succesor of his succesor (although an unofficial rule). This is how power in China has been transfered and what has allowed China to attain certain stability and focus on the country rather than on individuals after Mao. Xi is breaking with this tradition and attaining impressive ammounts of power recentely, as demonstrated during the Party Congress and now. He is becoming an authoritarian, which begs the question why is the party so afraid that they give almot Mao-like powers to Xi.

Edit: Although , I don't understand why he is doing this, since the position of president doesn't matter anyway, maybe for vanity???

Most likely because the decentralization of power led to regional officials basically running their territories like little fiefdoms without a strong leader at the top to hold them accountable. Oddly enough, Xi was chosen specifically because he had relatively little influence within the party so the various factions thought that he'd be a useful figurehead, but he quite cleverly leveraged the public outrage at the rampant corruption to eliminate all of his rivals and consolidate power. Like Putin, despite his autocratic style, he seems to enjoy genuine support from the people and should continue to be in a strong position given he doesn't embarrass himself internationally. Obviously the term limits themselves are meaningless, if anything it's a move toward greater transparency since any successor he could appoint would almost certainly be a puppet while Xi remained the true power behind the throne, something that would be blatantly obvious to everyone just like it was with Medvedev.

[Sharkconas]

If I recall correctly hes been making powerplays to remove his predecessors cronys. So yes he's consolidating power for his own faction. This does not bode well for the Chinese people or the world in general.

[Mayhem]

If I recall correctly hes been making powerplays to remove his predecessors cronys. So yes he's consolidating power for his own faction. This does not bode well for the Chinese people or the world in general.

He's also greatly increasing the surveillance capabilities.

[Cerilis]

Location: Germany
Angela Merkel: 12 years, 94 days in office.

If you look at the entire world, term limits are a rare thing.
Even our own Rutte has been the Prime Minister for nearly 8 years, and is currently on his third term.

Term limits should be a more widespread thing.

[Deleted]

Trump looks at China with envy.

[Mormolyce]

Location: Germany
Angela Merkel: 12 years, 94 days in office.

If you look at the entire world, term limits are a rare thing.
Even our own Rutte has been the Prime Minister for nearly 8 years, and is currently on his third term.

Australia doesn't have them either.

I guess it's kind of debateable whether they're a good thing or bad. I would treat any country removing term restrictions to enable someone to keep serving with extreme suspicion however.

[Mormolyce]

Yeah, it's weird that when countries remove them people are freaking out.
But the reality is that most of the world doesn't have random laws to ban people from running in elections.

It is kind of different when you have them, but the rules are changed to accomodate one person.

Republican Rome had term limits (effectively), and Marius breaking them is one of the things that ultimately led to the fall of the Republic.

[Breccia]

Not the biggest surprise in the world. It'd be easier to say "no, China, don't, choose freedom" if the country wasn't doing so damn well.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Honestly I could care less. He hasn't started a war even though moran Trump's mouth has been running and that shows he is worth keeping around until at that fool is out of office.