‘It will sow the seeds of chaos for China’: intellectuals urge lawmakers to vote down end to presidential term limit

The Communist Party’s proposal to lift the state constitutional limit on the Chinese president’s term of office has come under fire from some of the country’s intellectuals, amid heavy censorship of social media discussion.

In an open letter to Beijing’s legislators to the National People’s Congress on Monday, Li Datong, a former editor with state-run China Youth Daily, called on the lawmakers to vote against the proposal when the legislature met for its annual full session next week.

“The two-term limit on the presidency introduced in the 1982 constitution is an epochal political reform by the Communist Party of China and all the Chinese people, after their reflection on the enormous sufferings of the Cultural Revolution,” the open letter to the city’s 55 national legislators said.

“It was the highest and most effective legal restriction meant to prevent autocracy or putting individuals above the party and the state ... It’s also one of the most important political legacies of [late paramount leader] Deng Xiaoping.

“Lifting the term limits ... would sow the seeds of chaos for China ... Please seriously consider our views and vote against [the proposal].” 

Li said in the letter that his comments represented an unspecified group of “like-minded voters”.