https://www.scmp.com/rss/326603/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com China’s recent constitutional amendment eliminating the term limits for the president and vice-president has left much of the West aghast. Critics fear the emergence of a new and unaccountable dictatorship, with President Xi Jinping becoming “Chairman Mao 2.0”. This response is more than a little inappropriate. Long tenures are not exactly unheard of in the West. For example, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has just begun her fourth four-year term – a development that the rest of Europe has... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2140296/how-west-misread-xi-china-abolished-term-limits-ensure?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2140296/how-west-misread-xi-china-abolished-term-limits-ensure?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Apr 2018 09:30:15 +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 China recently revised its constitution, as it has done several times in the past, but the extent of the changes this time were greater than before, and the impact will be too. Legislators voted this month to include President Xi Jinping’s political doctrine, “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”, into the constitution, among other changes. In sum, the amendments leave the framework of the 1982 constitution intact, but they project a self-confidence that... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2138542/beyond-term-limits-chinas-new-constitution-written-nation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2138542/beyond-term-limits-chinas-new-constitution-written-nation?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Mar 2018 04:59:14 +0000 The abolition of presidential term limits in China has paved the way for Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely, and earned him both bouquets and brickbats for being the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. But is he? While there is no doubt that he is a strong leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the moment, his relentless habit of accumulating titles could hint at greater insecurity than it seems. After all, the relevance between power and titles in the CCP is relatively new to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2136859/chinas-xi-do-titles-matter-more-they-should?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2136859/chinas-xi-do-titles-matter-more-they-should?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Mar 2018 10:45:00 +0000 An effort to clear the way for President Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely, by amending the state constitution to abolish term limits on the Chinese presidency, could become the most controversial political development of modern Chinese history – not only since the establishment of communist rule in 1949 but since the founding of the republic in 1911, when the last Chinese imperial dynasty was overthrown. By eliminating the two-term limit, Xi will ensure that he can stay at the helm... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2136255/president-life-xi-risks-repeat-chinas-mao-era-mistakes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2136255/president-life-xi-risks-repeat-chinas-mao-era-mistakes?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000 “Urgent: Communist Party of China proposes change of constitution [regarding] Chinese president’s term”. In a fashion typical of news agencies, the English-language service of the state-run Xinhua dropped the bombshell announcement in the early afternoon of February 25, adding that the party leadership proposed to remove from the constitution the expression that “president and vice-president shall serve no more than two consecutive terms”. The brief report in English came nearly two hours ahead... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2136293/why-chinas-silence-xis-term-limits-move-portends-trouble?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2136293/why-chinas-silence-xis-term-limits-move-portends-trouble?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Mar 2018 01:00:30 +0000 The Communist Party is set to introduce a number of constitutional amendments at China’s annual parliamentary sessions, including an item removing the term limits of the presidency. This sudden move has led to a flood of outcries inside and outside the country which has resulted in a clampdown on internet discussion by the authorities. The end of presidential term limits has been widely interpreted as Xi Jinping’s attempt to seize more power and hold office for life. The clause limiting an... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2135706/china-needs-xi-jinping-helm-least-decade-more-finish-his?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2135706/china-needs-xi-jinping-helm-least-decade-more-finish-his?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Mar 2018 09:15:15 +0000 The scrapping of constitutional limits on presidential terms is one step back in China’s political reform, and will put China's development and people's lives at tremendous risk.  The adoption of presidential term limits in the 1982 constitution was a historic reform measure taken by the Communist Party and the people of China after the immense suffering of the Cultural Revolution.  Dropping the limits will again plant the seeds of chaos and lead to serious damage.  Once China loses its checks... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/li-datong-scrapping-presidential-term-limits-put-nation-tremendous-risk/article/2135624?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/li-datong-scrapping-presidential-term-limits-put-nation-tremendous-risk/article/2135624?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Mar 2018 07:45:45 +0000 As soon as the news broke that China was planning to remove the term limits of its president, the news was pooh-poohed by Western pundits as a retrograde step designed to make Xi Jinping a lifelong leader. Since the Age of Enlightenment (or going back much earlier, to the signing of Magna Carta), Western political ideology has privileged the rule of law, curbs on state power and checks and balances. Against such a background, it is hardly surprising that China’s latest constitutional move is... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/regina-ip-leader-without-term-limits-will-deliver-change-china-needs/article/2135597?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/regina-ip-leader-without-term-limits-will-deliver-change-china-needs/article/2135597?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Mar 2018 07:45:15 +0000 The decision to end presidential term limits in China, opening the way for a third and perhaps fourth term for Xi Jinping, has been the talk of the political world this week (except in China itself, where discussion is curiously absent). But is there a precedent for this sort of decision by a Chinese leader? Whatever Xi’s political model, it’s not Mao Zedong’s, despite the new concentration in China’s public culture on the glory days of the high communist past. During the Cultural Revolution,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2135162/xis-no-mao-or-deng-or-chiang-so-who-he?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2135162/xis-no-mao-or-deng-or-chiang-so-who-he?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Mar 2018 01:30:15 +0000 A highlight of China’s biggest political meeting of the year – this month’s “Two Sessions” – will almost certainly be the slew of constitutional amendments proposed by the Communist Party to the country’s legislature, the National People’s Congress. Among these, the one that by far has gained the most overseas attention is the plan to scrap the two-term limit on the presidency. To the unseasoned observer, this might appear little beyond an organisational change in China’s domestic politics but... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2135147/what-unlimited-xi-presidency-means-chinas-neighbours?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2135147/what-unlimited-xi-presidency-means-chinas-neighbours?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Mar 2018 04:00:30 +0000 Last Sunday, the Chinese Communist Party shocked the world by proposing to scrap the two-term limit for the Chinese presidency and vice-presidency, widely seen as a move to clear the way for Xi Jinping to retain power after 2023. The proposal is likely to be adopted later this month when the national legislature meets in Beijing. Xi’s wish to stay on is no surprise – China watchers have speculated for months about his intent – but the timing of the announcement caught many off guard. Though the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2135380/end-term-limits-xi-can-realise-his-chinese-dream-will-price?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2135380/end-term-limits-xi-can-realise-his-chinese-dream-will-price?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Mar 2018 04:15:45 +0000 China is no stranger to leadership without time constraint. An exception is the limit of two five-year terms for the country’s president, inserted in the constitution after the chaos of the Cultural Revolution launched by Mao Zedong. It effectively prevents the same person ruling as president, as well as party leader and military chief for more than 10 years. The insertion of the term limit was in keeping with negative sentiment at the time towards a one-person dictatorship. The proposal by the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2134984/proposal-abolish-term-limit-president-could-buy-more-time?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2134984/proposal-abolish-term-limit-president-could-buy-more-time?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Feb 2018 16:35:20 +0000 Prominent businessman Shih Wing-ching is usually credited with coining the phrase “pocket first’ in reference to accepting the restricted framework on universal suffrage imposed by Beijing. In the event, pan-democrats in the legislature voted down the government’s electoral reform package in 2015. Shih didn’t know how prescient he was. And pan-dems and their diehard supporters still won’t admit how foolish they had been. But many people had already warned at the time that rejecting the reform... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2134981/too-late-pocket-first-xi-seeks-abolish-term-limits?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2134981/too-late-pocket-first-xi-seeks-abolish-term-limits?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Feb 2018 16:12:01 +0000 And so the Communist Party of China recommends to the National People’s Congress the removal of China’s rough equivalent of America’s 22nd amendment – two terms at most for the top leader. Anyone who didn’t see this “surprise” coming needs to have her or his China-watcher eyeglass prescription carefully re-examined. Now the way is paved for a long march by incumbent President Xi Jinping, conceivably for as long as he can stand the difficult job of being No 1 for 1.4 billion people, and for as... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2134754/xi-jinping-president-beyond-2023-may-be-good-china-though?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2134754/xi-jinping-president-beyond-2023-may-be-good-china-though?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Feb 2018 09:40:06 +0000