Communist Party proposes removing limit on presidential terms
(26 Feb 2018) China's ruling Communist Party has proposed scrapping term limits for the country's president, the official news agency said, appearing to lay the groundwork for party leader Xi Jinping to rule as president beyond 2023. The party's Central Committee proposed to remove from the constitution the expression that China's president and vice president "shall serve no more than two consecutive terms," the Xinhua News Agency said on Sunday. Xi, 64, cemented his status as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao in the 1970s at last year's twice-a-decade Communist Party congress, where his name and a political theory attributed to him were added to the party constitution as he was given a second five-year term as general secretary. Xi is coming to the end of his first five-year term as president and is set to be appointed to his second term at an annual meeting of the rubber-stamp parliament that starts 5 March. The proposal to end term limits will likely be approved at that meeting. Term limits on officeholders have been in place since they were included in the 1982 constitution, when lifetime tenure was abolished. Professor Hu Xingdou, a political analyst in Beijing told AP that Xi has been continually consolidating his position and there was concern the general secretary "will slide into a kind of Fascism or personal dictatorship which will cause very serious consequences" Hu added however that while Xi might need an extra five-year term or two to carry out his plans, the country was unlikely to return to an era of lifetime tenure for heads of state. "It will probably be extended to three or four terms," Hu said. On the streets of Beijing people on the whole expressed their support for Xi staying on after his second term. Sunday's announcement on term limits came before the Central Committee was to begin a three-day meeting in Beijing on Monday to discuss major personnel appointments and other issues. The son of a famed communist elder, Xi rose through the ranks to the position of Shanghai's party leader before being promoted to the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee in 2007. When Xi did assume the top spot in 2012, it was as head of a reduced seven-member committee on which he had only one reliable ally, veteran Wang Qishan. He put Wang in charge of a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown that helped Xi eliminate challengers, both serving and retired, and cow potential opponents. Xi, whose titles include head of the armed forces, has lavished attention on the military with parades and defence budget increases. But he's also led a crackdown on abuses and a push to cut 300,000 personnel from the 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army, underscoring his ability to prevail against entrenched interests. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
