Chinese President Xi Jinping at plenary session of National People's Congress held in Great Hall, Beijing 11 March 2018 (AP Photo/Aijaz...
China has amended its constitution to abolish the two-term limit for the country’s president, allowing Xi Jinping to become second Mao that rule for life. Members of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, overwhelmingly approved the constitutional change. The NPC said,China’s rubber-stamp parliament and National People’s Congress overwhelmingly approved the constitutional change; about 99.8 per cent (with 2,958 votes) out of 2,964 votes cast were in favor for the change, while the opposition just got two votes, three on abstentions and one went as a spoiled ballot. The vote took place in the cavernous Great Hall of the People in Beijing, with delegates placing salmon-coloured ballot slips inside red voting boxes. Mr Xi who was also among NPC delegates, he received a huge applause as he solemnly placed his own vote.
The vote lets Mr Xi remain as president beyond 2023 after the completion of his two terms. The constitutional revision was widely anticipated, with Mr Xi have now concentrated power since he became a Communist Party's leader in 2012. The amendment it has met some opposition from liberal intellectuals,youths and some members of China’s middle class who refer the move as moving back to the capricious rule of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping the main driving force that reshaped China’s economy and sociopolitical atmosphere through iron fist.
Delegates queue to cast their ballots during the vote to repeal presidential term limits. 3/11/2018
The NPC, is a lawmaking body made up of a number of government officials and citizens including several billionaires who entirely controlled by the Communist party, so some said the passing of constitutional change was the effect guaranteed from the party’s Central Committee that introduced the motion this year.
Antagonists And Protagonists
The tiny proportion of opposition votes “confirms that Xi is much more feared than loved and admired, as we know the amendment was controversial,” said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies. "There's a lot of fear," said Ma, who writes under the pen name Old Ghost. "People know that Xi is about to become the emperor, so they don't dare cross his path. China has strictly censored many direct criticism of the amendment since it was made public last month. The authority blocked social media services. Public resistance in China has been limited to a few petitions by intellectuals. But in private, many Chinese people grumble that the reform is a backwards step after four decades of reforms following Mao’s rule.
Silent demonstration in overseas has been observed as posters denouncing Mr Xi popped up on several university campuses in Europe,Australia and North America as small groups of Chinese students studying abroad push back against what they view as regressive political changes. “The single most important driving force behind China’s growth in the past 30 years has been the check on the party leader’s power on the institutional level,” said a student who organised the campaign going by the name of Thomas, who is from southern China. “I fear that China will have another Cultural Revolution,” said a Chinese student studying in Taipei, referring to a decade of ideological upheaval under Mao that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Additional reporting by Emily Feng and Xinning Liu and Edward White in Taipei To be sure, Xi's confident, populist leadership style and tough attitude toward official corruption has won him a significant degree of popular support. Most Chinese Students who are studying overseas have been more blunt toward the government. Posts in recent days popped up at the University of California, San Diego, with Xi's picture and the text "Never My President" and spread to more than eight overseas universities, said Lebao Wu, a student at Australian National University in Canberra.
A 56-year-old named Zhang who works for insurance firm said citizens desired political freedom, but wanted a powerful leader who could deliver stability and wealth even more. Letting Xi rule indefinitely "will strengthen the party's leadership and offer the quickest path toward development," Zhang said. "We need a powerful leader. People need an emperor in their hearts. The Western idea that you are not alive unless you are free has not taken root in people's hearts."
He Weifang, a well-known blogger and law professor at Peking University, limited his remarks this week to the observance that the constitutional amendment proposal contained 21 articles, and if a delegate supported some articles but opposed others, he or she was entitled to vote against it. In the run-up to the vote, congress delegates have lavished extra praise on Xi.
The party boss of a northwestern province that contains a significant Tibetan population compared him to a living Buddhist deity. "If you do good things for the people, helping social deprived people, you should be able to keep serving forever," said Zhou Shuying, an artist and delegate who representing a rural county about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Beijing.
Additional reporting by Emily Feng and Xinning Liu and Edward White in Taipei To be sure, Xi's confident, populist leadership style and tough attitude toward official corruption has won him a significant degree of popular support. Most Chinese Students who are studying overseas have been more blunt toward the government. Posts in recent days popped up at the University of California, San Diego, with Xi's picture and the text "Never My President" and spread to more than eight overseas universities, said Lebao Wu, a student at Australian National University in Canberra.
A 56-year-old named Zhang who works for insurance firm said citizens desired political freedom, but wanted a powerful leader who could deliver stability and wealth even more. Letting Xi rule indefinitely "will strengthen the party's leadership and offer the quickest path toward development," Zhang said. "We need a powerful leader. People need an emperor in their hearts. The Western idea that you are not alive unless you are free has not taken root in people's hearts."
He Weifang, a well-known blogger and law professor at Peking University, limited his remarks this week to the observance that the constitutional amendment proposal contained 21 articles, and if a delegate supported some articles but opposed others, he or she was entitled to vote against it. In the run-up to the vote, congress delegates have lavished extra praise on Xi.
The party boss of a northwestern province that contains a significant Tibetan population compared him to a living Buddhist deity. "If you do good things for the people, helping social deprived people, you should be able to keep serving forever," said Zhou Shuying, an artist and delegate who representing a rural county about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Beijing.