China’s ruling Communist Party has proposed to remove a constitutional clause that limits the service of presidents to two consecutive terms, official news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday.

The party’s Central Committee proposed to remove the expression that the president and vice president of the People’s Republic of China shall serve “no more than two consecutive terms” from the country’s Constitution.

Constitutional reform needs the Parliament’s approval. If it is accepted, the change would pave the way for President Xi Jinping to stay in office indefinitely. As the country’s Parliament is full of members who are loyal to the party, the proposal is not expected to be blocked, according to Reuters.

In October 2017, the Communist Party endorsed Xi for a second five-year term, which will end in 2022. China also broke its tradition by not naming a clear successor to Xi, which has only further strengthened the president’s grip on the country.

The Central Committee also proposed that “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” should be inserted into the Constitution, Xinhua reported. Xi’s guiding political ideology has already been written into the Communist Party of China’s constitution, making him the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. </s> China is close to eliminating presidential term limits, meaning current president Xi Jinping would be able to stay in power indefinitely. The proposed change to the country’s constitution, which was announced on Sunday by the Central Committee of China’s Communist Party, would appear to signal that President Xi not only wants to stay in power, but has, unlike his predecessors, accumulated enough power to be able to change the rules in order to keep it. “Papa Xi” as he is referred to in official songs, was already the most powerful leader of the country since Mao Zedong, and by consolidating his power, he has developed a reputation of a strongman in the mold of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Ending term limits would represent the biggest political change in the country in decades. Under current law, presidents are only allowed to serve two five-year terms, meaning the 64-year-old Xi would have to leave office at the end of his second term in 2023. The term limits were put in place in the 1990s to aid in smoother and more predictable transitions of power in the country.

The new draft amendments to China’s Constitution, which include abolishing the term limits as well adding Xi’s signature political treatise to the constitution’s preamble, were apparently approved by the Communist Party a month ago. They will not almost certainly be passed into law by the National People’s Congress in March, as China’s legislature always goes along with the proposals of party officials. </s> On Sunday, the China's Communist Party Central Committee proposed to amend China's Constitution to remove the two-term limit for Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the People's Republic. The amendment is sure to be approved when the National People's Congress convenes for its annual session on March 5. The Constitution can be amended by a two-thirds vote of the nearly 3,000 members of the Congress.

The National People's Congress is dominated by the Communist Party and is widely viewed as a rubber-stamp body. The success of the proposed amendment is all but assured. If passed, it will allow Chinese President Xi Jinping to stay in office indefinitely.

In the absence of a Constitutional amendment, Xi would have to step down from the Presidency in 2023. He was first elected in 2013 by a vote of 2,952-1, and is certain to be reelected this year to a second five year term. Speculation is that the one vote against Xi Jinping in 2013's secret ballot was... Xi Jinping himself. He may have cast the vote as a form of democratic window-dressing.

In addition to the office of President, Xi also holds the posts of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, neither of which carries any term limit. That puts him in charge of the state, the Party, and the army, potentially in perpetuity. In December, the national armed police were put under the Central Military Commission as well. Formally as well as informally, Xi is set to hold all the major reins of power in China for as long as he chooses.

In recent years, China has often been held up as a successful model of authoritarian government, non-democratic but nonetheless meritocratic and effective. The major foundations of China's authoritarian meritocracy were supposedly its traditions of collective leadership and rotation in power. These helped China avoid the pitfalls of strongman rule that are so common in other communist and post-communist societies.

There have always been doubts about whether or not that consensus-driven model would outlive China's first post-Mao leader, Deng Xiaoping. After the death of Communist China's founding father Mao Zedong in 1976, there was a tussle for power with massive implications for the future direction of China. On one side were the so-called Gang of Four (led by Mao's wife, Jiang Qing), who planned to continue Mao's legacy. Opposing them were a group of reformers organized around Mao's junior contemporary, sometimes partner, and frequent competitor Deng Xiaoping. </s> March 11 (UPI) -- China's legislature was nearly unanimously endorsed a change constitution Sunday in Bejing, formally removing term limits to enable Xi Jinping to stay on as the president for life.

Out of 2,964 ballots by the National People's Congress, just two delegates voted against the move and three abstained in the biggest change to the constitution in 36 years. The amendments' passage required two thirds of the vote.

Otherwise, X's term would expire in 2023.

The two-term limit was approved in 1982 to prevent a repeat of a decadeslong reign by Mao Zedong, who died while in office.

Before the vote by the largely ceremonial parliament, the ruling Communist Party announced the proposals on Feb. 25. It said it aligned the presidency with Xi's two other, more powerful, posts -- heads of the party and the military -- without no term limits.

Xi, 64, last week endorsed the proposed constitutional changes as a desire of "common will of the party and the people."

In China, there was opposition to the change.

"He just dug a huge hole for himself," said Li Datong, a former editor of the state-run China Youth Daily newspaper said to CNN. "The top leader's term limits are the biggest common denominator shared by all political forces in China. Its removal could trigger political infighting -- that's why this move is dangerous."

Shen Chunyao, a senior NPC official, said to media after the vote: "I don't think this issue exists."

The amendment also applies to the vice presidency, a largely ceremonial post.

Wang Qishan, China's fearsome former anti-corruption czar, is likely to become the new vice president later this week.

"He's a bit of bulldozer -- and there's no other senior politician who could or want to stand up to him," said Duncan Innes-Ker, regional director for Asia at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said to CNN. "The trouble with being the clear leader of everything is that everyone knows where the buck stops if something goes wrong."

In another major constitutional change approved Sunday, a national anti-corruption agency, called the National Supervision Commission, was approved. It has the same high-level status as the supreme court and the top prosecutor's office.

The NSC can prosecute anyone who exercises public authority, instead of just Communist Party members.

"It looks very much like the early stage of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, the accumulation of power," Innes-Ker said. "The bigger question is whether or not this accumulation of power around Xi is positive or negative for reform."

Also among the 21 constitutional changes, Xi's political doctrine -- "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" -- was added to the constitution. The party added this to its charter in October. </s> In a move likely to pave the way for Chinese leader Xi Jinping to stay at the country’s helm beyond his second five-year term, the ruling Communist Party’s Central Committee has proposed to remove term limits for the president and vice president.

In a short release, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said that the Central Committee had proposed to remove from the country’s constitution the expression that the president and vice president “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms.”

It said the proposal was made public Sunday, a day ahead of a scheduled meeting of the Central Committee. It was unclear why the announcement was made ahead of that meeting.

Xi, 64, was approved to begin his second five-year term late last year and is slated to step down in 2022. But many analysts believe he wants to stay in office longer.

Xi, the general-secretary of the Central Committee, had stressed the important role of the constitution on Saturday.

“No organization or individual has the power to overstep the constitution or the law,” Xinhua, in a separate report, quoted Xi as saying during a Central Committee Politburo meeting Saturday.

At a Central Committee plenary session in January, party leaders decided on a plan to write Xi’s guiding principle into the constitution at the National People’s Congress scheduled for next month. Xi will also be formally elected to his second term at the annual meeting of the rubber-stamp parliament, which opens March 5.

The principle, entitled “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,” was added to the Communist Party’s constitution last year.

The country’s constitution was first adopted in 1982 and has not been amended since 2004. Speculation that Xi might seek to stay in office past his mandate has hit a fever pitch since he unveiled a new leadership line-up in October that didn’t include a clear possible heir.

Xi, as the son of a famed Communist Party veteran, is known as a “princeling.” He rose through the ranks to the position of Shanghai’s party leader in 2007 before being promoted the same year to the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee. A year later, in a sign that he would succeed then-leader Hu Jintao, he was tapped to be vice president.

Since his elevation to the presidency in 2012, Xi has overseen a wide-ranging crackdown on corruption that has helped him eliminate rivals and consolidate his grip on power.

As commander in chief of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Xi has also been at the helm of a military modernization campaign that poured cash into the country’s defense budgets while streamlining its forces.

He has also moved to shore up his legacy, last year taking on the mantle of “core” of the party leadership, elevating him above his predecessors to a position reminiscent of communist China’s founder, Mao Zedong.

But at least one analyst said the announcement revealed weakness in the Communist Party’s bid to maintain power.

“I interpret this piece of news as evidence that the CCP is weaker and more vulnerable than thought, not strong and stable,” Lyle Morris, a China expert and senior analyst at the Rand Corp., wrote on Twitter in reference to the party. “A party that allows a leader through cult and power of personality to re-write the rules of succession is not a political party confident in itself.” </s> CHINA’S ruling Communist Party has proposed scrapping term limits for the country’s president, the official news agency says, 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 Jinping has finally achieved his ultimate goal when he first embarked on Chinese politics — that is to be the Mao Zedong of the 21st century,” said Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University in Hong Kong.

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.

It was the latest move by the party signalling Xi’s willingness to break with tradition and centralise power under him. Xi has taken control of an unusually wide range of political, economic and other functions, a break with the past two decades of collective leadership.

“What is happening is potentially very dangerous because the reason why Mao Zedong made one mistake after another was because China at the time was a one-man show,” Lam said. “For Xi Jinping, whatever he says is the law. There are no longer any checks and balances.” 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 rubberstamp parliament that starts March 5.

The proposal to end term limits will likely be approved at that meeting.

Political analysts said the party would likely seek to justify the proposed removal of the presidential term limit by citing Xi’s vision of establishing a prosperous, modern society by 2050.

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. </s> In an unprecedented decision, Chinese Communist Party has removed Presidential term limit. The decision will allow China’s most powerful leader in decades, Xi Jinping to lead the Asian giant up to the year 2023. Along with the president, the changed constitution of Communist Party will also be applied to the Vice President. 64-year-old Xi Jinping is leading China since the year 2013 and would have to leave the President seat under the current system. The new proposed system will allow the president to serve the country for more than 2 consecutive terms of 5 years.

The new change will be submitted to the lawmakers at the annual full session of the National People’s Congress going to start on March 5. Xi Jinping is following Den Xiaoping ideology of collective model of leadership. The current chief of Communist Party of India has hinted at bigger dreams after a major change. His previous two predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao had served for 2 years 5 terms. This is not the first time that Chinese Communist Party has proposed some changes to the constitution, Last year in annual Congress October party unveiled a new 7 member Standing Committee.

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The party has also proposed to include Xi’s thought to the national constitution. After taking over a party general secretary, Xi has started a war against the corruption, which helped the country to improve its corruption perception ranking by Transparency International. The Central Committee has also proposed listing the National Supervisory Commission as a new organ in the Constitution.

Last October during annual Congress feared former head of the anti-graft agency, Wang Qishan had stepped down from the Standing Committee. It adds to the speculation that he might become China’s Vice President or get any other influential role. After getting China’s top post, Xi has a crackdown on democracy and human rights.

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ALSO READ: Indian troops to master Mandarin to enhance security skills against Chinese troops </s> (BEIJING) — China’s ruling Communist Party has proposed scrapping term limits for the country’s president, the official news agency said Sunday, 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.

“Xi Jinping has finally achieved his ultimate goal when he first embarked on Chinese politics — that is to be the Mao Zedong of the 21st century,” said Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, referring to the founder of communist China.

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.

It was the latest move by the party signaling Xi’s willingness to break with tradition and centralize power under him. Xi has taken control of an unusually wide range of political, economic and other functions, a break with the past two decades of collective leadership.

“What is happening is potentially very dangerous because the reason why Mao Zedong made one mistake after another was because China at the time was a one-man show,” Lam said. “For Xi Jinping, whatever he says is the law. There are no longer any checks and balances.”

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 March 5. 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.

Political analysts said the party would likely seek to justify the proposed removal of the presidential term limit by citing Xi’s vision of establishing a prosperous, modern society by 2050.

“The theoretical justification for removing tenure limits is that China requires a visionary, capable leader to see China through this multi-decade grand plan,” Lam said.

“But the other aspect of it could just be Mao Zedong-like megalomania; he is just convinced that he is fit to be an emperor for life,” he said.

Hu Xingdou, a Beijing-based political commentator, said while Xi might need an extra five-year term or two to carry out his plans, the country is unlikely to return to an era of lifetime tenure for heads of state.

“President Xi may be in a leading position for a relatively long time,” Hu said. “This is beneficial to pushing forward reforms and the fight against corruption, but it’s impossible for China to have lifetime tenure again.”

“We have drawn profound lessons from the system of lifetime tenures,” Hu said, referring to the chaos and turmoil of Mao’s 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.

Xi’s image dominates official propaganda, prompting suggestions that he is trying to build a cult of personality, and evoking memories of the upheaval of that era. Party spokespeople reject such talk, insisting Xi is the core of its seven-member Standing Committee, not a lone strongman.

At last year’s party congress, Xi hailed a “new era” under his leadership and laid out his vision of a ruling party that serves as the vanguard for everything from defending national security to providing moral guidance to ordinary Chinese. At the close of the congress, the party elevated five new officials to assist Xi on his second five-year term, but stopped short of designating an obvious successor to him.

Political analysts said the absence of an apparent successor pointed to Xi’s longer-term ambitions.

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 defense 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. </s> CHINA’S parliament has passed historic constitutional changes that abolish term limits to let President Xi Jinping rule indefinitely.

Sunday’s announcement of the vote, witnessed by reporters in the Great Hall of the People, passed with two “no” votes and three abstentions among almost 3000 delegates.

China’s ruling Communist Party proposed the amendment last month and there was never any doubt it would pass as parliament is packed with loyal party members who would not have opposed the proposal.

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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’s chaotic 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. The slide toward one-man rule under Xi has fuelled concern that Beijing is eroding efforts to guard against the excesses of autocratic leadership and make economic regulation more stable and predictable.

In a sign of the issue’s sensitivity, government censors are aggressively scrubbing social media of expressions ranging from “I disagree” to “Xi Zedong.” US President Donald Trump was criticised last week for seeming to approve of Xi’s unlimited rule, saying: “President for life ... I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day.”
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposes that the country's constitution be amended to abolish term limits for the posts of President and Vice President. The move is seen as an attempt by current president Xi Jinping to solidify his power.