https://www.scmp.com/rss/326600/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com A liberal intellectual who openly criticised Beijing’s decision to remove the term limit on President Xi Jinping has spoken out for the first time since his article was put up on the campus of China’s top university earlier this month. While the article was censored on the mainland, it has been circulating on Chinese social media for the past two weeks. The controversial move to scrap the term limit and allow Xi to stay in power beyond 2023 – a change that was made to the constitution in March –... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2146655/chinese-intellectual-fan-liqin-who-openly-criticised?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2146655/chinese-intellectual-fan-liqin-who-openly-criticised?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 May 2018 00:32:31 +0000 Tam Yiu-chung is a veteran – his political resume includes a 28-year tenure as a Hong Kong lawmaker that spanned the 1997 handover, his membership on the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee, membership on the first Executive Council of the first SAR government, 14-year member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the largest political party in Hong Kong. History tells us Tam is no fire starter. And he definitely didn’t get elected to the top echelon of the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2138567/tam-yiu-chung-has-point-beijings-hong-kong-policy-will-only?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2138567/tam-yiu-chung-has-point-beijings-hong-kong-policy-will-only?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Mar 2018 03:03:49 +0000 It’s been a momentous month in Chinese politics, but the move to abolish the presidential term limit has overshadowed all else. It took just two weeks – from the time it was announced to the near unanimous endorsement by the legislature – to make the most drastic revision to the state constitution since it was introduced in 1982, a change that sent shock waves through both Chinese society and the international community.   Now, the only clause that had prevented Xi Jinping from staying in power... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2138439/does-xi-jinping-really-want-be-chinese-president-life?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2138439/does-xi-jinping-really-want-be-chinese-president-life?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Mar 2018 10:00:30 +0000 Chinese President Xi Jinping’s new-found ability to stay in his job indefinitely may give him greater scope to pursue his plans to curb rampant speculation in the country’s property market, but he will still face the problem of how to avoid damaging an overall economy heavily dependent on the sector. In the latter phase of his first five-year presidency, Xi pushed an array of policies that included curbs on home speculators, more land for government-subsidised homes and measures to boost the... https://www.scmp.com/property/hong-kong-china/article/2136897/what-does-chinese-president-xis-new-longevity-mean-countrys?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/property/hong-kong-china/article/2136897/what-does-chinese-president-xis-new-longevity-mean-countrys?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Mar 2018 13:28:01 +0000 Chinese President Xi Jinping can now stay in power indefinitely, after lawmakers nearly unanimously approved changes to the constitution.  Over the weekend, they agreed to remove term limits for the positions of president and vice-president. Xi, currently heading into his second five-year term as president, is now China's most powerful leader in decades. ​ What does his leadership mean for China and the world? Inkstone has invited Willy Lam, a veteran China watcher at the Chinese University of... https://www.scmp.com/politics/what-emperor-xi-means-china-and-world/article/2136833?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/politics/what-emperor-xi-means-china-and-world/article/2136833?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Mar 2018 09:30:30 +0000 Chinese state media on Monday attacked critics of ending presidential term limits, which effectively allows President Xi Jinping to stay in office indefinitely, saying the key to the country’s path was following the Communist Party. China’s largely ceremonial parliament on Sunday overwhelmingly voted to amend the constitution, scrapping the term restrictions and adding clauses to strengthen the party’s already dominating role in politics. In the run-up to the vote, critics on Chinese social... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2136788/chinas-state-media-defend-changes-constitution-removing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2136788/chinas-state-media-defend-changes-constitution-removing?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Mar 2018 03:49:27 +0000 Under the watch of a confident and relaxed President Xi Jinping, nearly 3,000 Chinese lawmakers were nearly unanimous in their approval on Sunday of changes to the state constitution that included removing the term limit on the presidency. Xi, who had maintained a poker face throughout the opening day of China’s parliamentary session last Monday, appeared much more at ease on Sunday. He even smiled when Wang Cheng, the vice-chairman of the National People’s Congress, announced the final result... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2136748/chinese-president-xi-jinping-confident-and-relaxed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2136748/chinese-president-xi-jinping-confident-and-relaxed?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Mar 2018 14:15:15 +0000 China’s legislature gave near-unanimous approval to sweeping changes to the constitution on Sunday, formally removing term limits to enable Xi Jinping to stay as president beyond 2023. Deferring to Xi’s unchallenged authority, the National People’s Congress passed the historic constitutional amendments with 2,958 votes in favour, only two against, and three abstentions. One ballot was invalid and 16 deputies were absent from the vote.  It also endorsed an assortment of revisions to further... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2136719/xi-jinping-cleared-stay-president-chinas-political?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2136719/xi-jinping-cleared-stay-president-chinas-political?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Mar 2018 08:00:30 +0000 A controversial plan to remove the presidential term limit from the Chinese constitution may have been first proposed three weeks before the Communist Party congress in October that confirmed Xi Jinping’s status as the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. The leadership also went to a select group of party elders seeking their opinions and endorsement, according to an official report to the legislature on Monday that gave a rare glimpse into the making of the contentious policy... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2135825/party-gives-its-version-how-xi-jinpings-plan-change?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2135825/party-gives-its-version-how-xi-jinpings-plan-change?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Mar 2018 13:30:15 +0000 The Communist Party’s plan to remove the two-term limit on China’s presidency from the country’s constitution has sparked a global debate about the dangers of a return to strongman politics. Even though many had anticipated Xi – the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong – would find a way to retain power after completing his second five-year term as president, which has yet to start, few could have guessed he would reveal his cards so early. China to be more open to foreign investment,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2135425/can-china-avoid-sliding-back-strongman-politics-xi?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2135425/can-china-avoid-sliding-back-strongman-politics-xi?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Mar 2018 13:00:30 +0000 Chinese President Xi Jinping has kick-started a structural shake-up of the country’s massive party and state bureaucracy, in a push for efficiency and to further entrench the Communist Party’s control of all levers of government. Xi’s shake-up plan was endorsed by the party’s ruling Central Committee after its three-day closed-door meeting in Beijing, state-run news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday. It came just days after the announcement of a party proposal to scrap the two-term... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2135165/first-term-limits-now-xi-jinping-shake-state-tighten?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2135165/first-term-limits-now-xi-jinping-shake-state-tighten?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Feb 2018 15:00:00 +0000 Taiwan will likely come under more pressure from Beijing over its cross-strait unification agenda once changes to the constitution are made to allow President Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely, analysts warned on Tuesday. While Xi might not push forward the agenda in the short term as he tackles domestic and international issues, analysts said Taiwan should prepare for Beijing to get tougher on unification. “Once Xi makes a breakthrough in the collective leadership system built by his... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134967/taipei-faces-tougher-beijing-if-xi-jinping-stays-power?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134967/taipei-faces-tougher-beijing-if-xi-jinping-stays-power?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Feb 2018 13:04:52 +0000 China’s armed forces have voiced support for the ruling Communist Party’s controversial proposal to end the two-term limit on the presidency that could see Xi Jinping stay in power indefinitely. The planned constitutional revisions – including removing the phrase about term limits for the president and vice-president – “are in line with the major theoretical views and key policies made during the Communist Party’s 19th congress ... and reflect the new achievements, experience and demands of the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134939/chinas-military-throws-weight-behind-controversial-move?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134939/chinas-military-throws-weight-behind-controversial-move?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Feb 2018 12:02:46 +0000 When China’s late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping introduced a two-term limit on presidents and vice-presidents in 1982 it was intended, in the wake of the Cultural Revolution, to prevent the rise of an omnipotent leader with a lifelong mandate. At the legislative sessions that start next week, Beijing is set to remove that restriction and in doing so clear the way for President Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely. While the presidency in China is largely a ceremonial post domestically –... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134922/chinas-president-xi-jinping-isnt-only-global-leader?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134922/chinas-president-xi-jinping-isnt-only-global-leader?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Feb 2018 11:00:00 +0000 Beijing’s plan for President Xi Jinping to remain in office indefinitely could provide the answer to China’s deep-rooted economic woes, analysts said, while others warned that an increasingly centralised power base could create new problems at home and abroad. The move to scrap the two-term limit on presidents and their deputies comes at a time when the country is busy trying to defuse a variety of financial risks and rebalance the economy against a backdrop of increased protectionism in the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2134846/giving-xi-jinping-endless-reign-answer-chinas-economic-woes-or?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2134846/giving-xi-jinping-endless-reign-answer-chinas-economic-woes-or?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Feb 2018 03:31:10 +0000 After the assassination attempt on US president Ronald Reagan in March 1981, vice-president George H.W. Bush stepped into the breach, famously telling a military aide as he sped towards Washington that “only the president lands on the south lawn”. But the concept of a vice-president would probably have confused many Chinese because the country did not even have a president at the time.  The 1975 constitution that was in force, dubbed the Cultural Revolution constitution, deliberately omitted the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134417/will-chinas-next-vice-president-have-more-power?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134417/will-chinas-next-vice-president-have-more-power?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Feb 2018 11:02:51 +0000 The decision to remove the ­constitutional restriction on China’s presidential term limits suggests Chinese President Xi Jinping may want to turn what is essentially a ceremonial position into a role carrying much greater political heft, an observer familiar with party ideology says. The party’s Central Committee on Sunday announced a plan to remove language from the charter saying the president and vice-president “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms”. The move is the strongest... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134657/change-chinese-presidency-term-limits-could-signal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134657/change-chinese-presidency-term-limits-could-signal?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Feb 2018 22:02:36 +0000 China will remove the constitutional restriction on the maximum number of terms the president and vice-president can serve, Xinhua reported on Sunday, paving the way for President Xi Jinping to stay on beyond 2023. The official news agency said the ruling Communist Party had proposed removing the line that the president and vice-president “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms” from the constitution. Change to Chinese presidency term limits could signal overhaul of role Xinhua later... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134624/china-will-scrap-limit-presidents-term-meaning-xi?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134624/china-will-scrap-limit-presidents-term-meaning-xi?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Feb 2018 08:15:45 +0000