Sino File | Why Xi Jinping’s term limits move makes China-US conflict more likely
America’s policy towards China has long been that interaction could help the countries grow closer. But as Mao-style, one-man rule returns, they are growing apart – raising fears in the West that confrontation is inevitable
Many Western analysts see the move to remove term limits on the Chinese presidency – a move that will enable Xi to become president for life – as a major setback in Chinese politics, something that harks back to the one-man rule of the Mao era.
For nearly half a century since Nixon’s ice-breaking trip to China in 1972, all US administrations, from Ford to Obama, have chosen to engage with China – reasoning that interaction would help the communist state to evolve.
However, the abolition of term limits has convinced many in the US that the West’s long-standing policy towards China has failed, reigniting fears that the country poses a rising threat.