CHINA IN HIS HANDS
China’s insanely powerful leader Xi Jinping allowed to remain Chairman Mao-style ‘president for life’
Chinese rubber-stamp lawmakers abolished presidential term limits today – meaning Xi can rule indefinitely
CHINA’s powerful leader Xi Jinping will be allowed to remain a Chairman Mao-style “president for life” after a constitutional amendment was passed today.
Rubber-stamp lawmakers abolished presidential term limits – meaning 64-year-old Xi can rule indefinitely.
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Nearly 3,000 hand-picked delegates at The National People's Congress endorsed the constitutional amendment Sunday, voting 2,958 in favour.
Just two opposed the motion – with three abstaining and one vote invalidated.
The amendment upends a system enacted by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1982 to prevent a return to the bloody excesses of a lifelong dictatorship typified by Mao Zedong.
The slide toward one-man rule under Xi has fuelled concern that Beijing is eroding efforts to guard against autocratic leadership and make economic regulation more stable and predictable.
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The surprise move is the boldest yet by Jinping as he seeks to restore China to what he considers its rightful place as a global power — an agenda that his allies have suggested requires his leadership.
Jinping cemented his status as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao at last year's twice-a-decade Communist Party congress.
During that congress 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.
Since taking office more than five years ago, Jinping has overseen a radical shake-up of the party, including taking down top leaders once thought untouchable as part of his popular war on deep-rooted corruption.
US President Donald Trump apologises for his joke about China's President Xi Jinping becoming 'president for life' at a recent roast
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Jinping, 64, had already built expectations that he would stay in office past two terms - and some analysts said he must have decided to move while at peak political strength.
Usually, authority begins to ebb from Chinese leaders as retirement nears.
Jude Blanchette, an expert on Chinese politics, told the “I can see where his thinking is that he’s riding high, he’s got the momentum, and took the initiative to ram this through.
“Why risk diminished power three years from now if the economy tanks or there’s a conflagration with North Korea, and not have the ability to do it?”
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In another victory for Jinping, the draft amendments to the Constitution would add his trademark expression for his main ideas - “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” - into the preamble of the Constitution.
The proposed amendments would also authorise a new anti-corruption commission that Jingping has pushed.
The commission would expand the reach of corruption investigations, which up to now have mostly been conducted by a Communist Party agency acting largely beyond the law.
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