Xi Jinping Can Now Remain President of China for Life

Kerry Lear

8 years ago

It&rsquo&semi;s official&ndash&semi; Chinese lawmakers have passed a constitutional amendment that abolishes term limits for its President, meaning Xi-Jinping will remain as the country&rsquo&semi;s leader for the rest of his life&period;&NewLine;Xi&rsquo&semi;s predecessor put the two-term limit in place in 1982 to protect China from lifelong dictatorships, but now the country&rsquo&semi;s National People&rsquo&semi;s Congress (NPC)&nbsp&semi;has been manipulated to abolish these limits&period;&NewLine;China&rsquo&semi;s Congress, made up of 3,000 hand-picked delegates, all &ldquo&semi;voted,&rdquo&semi; a process that only took ten minutes to complete&period; The results then were soon announced after the vote&period; 2,958 voted in favor, two in opposition, three abstained and one vote was invalidated&period;&NewLine;Xi would have had to step down in 2023 after his two terms as China&rsquo&semi;s president, but now he will stay in power indefinitely&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;This marks the biggest regression in China&rsquo&semi;s legal system since the reform and opening-up era of the 1980s,&rdquo&semi; said Zhang Lifan, independent&nbsp&semi;<a href="https&colon;//www&period;washingtontimes&period;com/topics/beijing/">Beijing</a>-based political commentator, to The Associated Press&period; &ldquo&semi;I&rsquo&semi;m afraid that this will all be written into our history in the future&period;&rdquo&semi;&NewLine;On February 25, the ruling Communist Party announced the proposal to eliminate the two-term limit for the presidency, claiming that both the head of the party and the military have no term limits&period;&NewLine;China Daily defended the proposal after it received criticism from the West&period;&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;They revel in their ignorance of China&&num;8217&semi;s reality and hold fast to their mean, even malicious predisposition toward China&&num;8217&semi;s political system out of their irrational, subjective and unprofessional ideological bias,&&num;8221&semi; said the paper&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;However, critics argue that not only is this a move of a dictatorship, but it could ultimately backfire on Xi&period;&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;He just dug a huge hole for himself,&&num;8221&semi; said Li Datong, a former editor of the state-run China Youth Daily newspaper&period; &&num;8220&semi;The top leader&&num;8217&semi;s term limits are the biggest common denominator shared by all political forces in China&period; Its removal could trigger political infighting &&num;8212&semi; that&&num;8217&semi;s why this move is dangerous&period;&&num;8221&semi;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;Xi was elected back in 2013 and ironically, it was his anti-corruption campaign that helped him gain his popularity&period; Critics of Xi argue that this was merely a technique for Xi to purge political rivals&period;&NewLine;Since Xi was elected president, China&rsquo&semi;s state surveillance and censorship programs have dramatically increased&period; China doesn&rsquo&semi;t allow any political opposition&period;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;The NPC also approved the establishment of a national anti-corruption agency, which many fear will not be used to reform, but rather as a way to destroy any disloyal politicians&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;The National Supervision Commission (NSC) will have a comparable status to the cabinet, the supreme court and the top prosecutor&&num;8217&semi;s office, consolidating existing graft-busting powers vested in various government agencies,&rdquo&semi; writes CNN&period; &ldquo&semi;Although it will share office space and personnel with the party&&num;8217&semi;s disciplinary arm &&num;8212&semi; once headed by the 69-year-old Wang &&num;8212&semi; the NSC can target anyone who exercises public authority, instead of just Communist Party members, providing Xi with further power to crush any political disloyalty&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;Author&rsquo&semi;s note&colon; This means that Xi is officially a dictator&period; A dictator is defined as &ldquo&semi;a political leader who possesses absolute power and wields it in an oppressive manner&rdquo&semi; and Xi has done that with this &ldquo&semi;amendment,&rdquo&semi; censorship, and by spying on his citizens&period; China is not even pretending to be a democracy&period; Even if there are elections, no one will stand a chance&period; Xi will make sure of that&period;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;