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News ID: 51838
Publish Date : 16 April 2018 - 20:33

Chinese President ‘Opposed’ to Life-Long Rule

BEIJING (FT) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that he is "personally opposed” to life-long rule, adding that foreign observers have "misinterpreted” a recent constitutional amendment that revoked the two-term limit on the presidency.
Xi expressed his views at three recent meetings with foreign dignitaries and Chinese officials, according to people who either attended the meetings or were briefed on the discussions.
They added that Xi justified the decision in terms of needing to align the country’s three top government and Communist party jobs. Xi’s two more powerful posts — party general secretary and chairmanship of the party’s Central Military Commission — are not subject to term limits.
Two people said Xi had surprised his guests by raising the issue himself. "President Xi said he was ‘personally opposed’ to (lifetime rule) and the outside world had ‘misinterpreted’ the amendment,” one of the people said.
Xi did not say at the meetings whether he intended to serve as president, party general secretary and CMC chairman for three or more terms.
On February 25, the official Xinhua news agency announced that the Communist party’s Central Committee had recommended scrapping the two-term limit on China’s presidency, paving the way for Xi to remain president for life if he wishes.
The Central Committee’s "recommendation” to revoke the presidential term limit was taken at a closed-door meeting in mid-January but kept secret for more than a month.
Mao’s successor, Deng Xiaoping, had term limits written into China’s constitution in an effort to bring more predictability to leadership transitions in the world’s most populous country.  
Defenders of the amendment argue that streamlining the technically separate party and government administrative structures will help Xi tackle difficult financial and economic reforms on which his administration made little headway during his first term in office.
"There isn’t really a line between the party and government,” said one Chinese government official. "That separation was always very superficial and unnecessary.”
After the amendment was first announced in February, a commentary in the People’s Daily newspaper argued that it did not mean Xi would rule for life, as party leaders would still have to step down if incapacitated by illness or advanced age. But Xi himself has not commented publicly on the issue.
Xi also remains genuinely popular across China because of the success of his anti-corruption campaign and nationalist foreign policies, with many people welcoming the prospect of him remaining in office for three or more terms.