Xi Jinping could become president for life

Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

The People’s Congress in China have adopted a constitutional amendment that allows Xi Jinping to become president for life.

 

The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party proposed earlier this year to remove the limitation on the number of years the country’s president and vice president can sit.

The Chinese Constitution stated that they “shall not sit for more than two consecutive periods”, but this has now changed.

The nearly 3,000 delegates in China’s Legislative Assembly, the ‘People’s Congress’, voted on the proposal to amend the law on Sunday, and the outcome was read. Only two of the delegates voted against, while three abstained.

In practice, the change means that the country’s 64-year-old president, Xi Jinping, can remain seated, even after his second period expires in 2023.

People’s leader

“We have seen Xi Jinping consolidate power, and that he has a completely different style than his predecessor, who stood for a more consensus-based approach. Xi has,to a far greater extent, set himself in the lead and defined himself as the leader of the people’’, said researcher, Andreas Bøje Forsby at the Danish Institute of International Studies.

Xi exploits the void that US President Donald Trump has now created in world politics, noted Forsby last month.

Strengthens stability

China stands for a completely different model than liberal Western democracy, but it also stands for stability. And that is strengthened with this grip on power, said Bøje Forsby.

Professor Jørgen Delman at the University of Copenhagen agrees, and believes that XI will now become the world’s most significant man.

‘’Xi Jinping is crucial to what is happening in the world now.

And with this change he becomes very central to what’s happening globally over the next few years. There is no doubt about that’’,Delman noted.

 

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today