China rule

Presidents of the United States are permitted to serve only two terms in order to limit how much power one president may command. If the current president proposed an end to presidential term limits, and his party was expected to rubber-stamp the proposal, that would immediately become a crisis.

But that is what happened in China this weekend. President Xi Jinping recommended abolishing presidential term limits, and the Communist Party (of which he is also the leader) will meet this month and probably bow to the increase of his personal power.

"China’s Communist Party instituted term limits after Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, to ensure that a future Chinese leader wouldn’t rule for life and cement the kind of cult of personality Mao had.

"If China does indeed remove term limits for Xi, he will not be the first world leader to use constitutional rules for authoritarian purposes. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and Russian President Vladimir Putin have all made similar moves. It’s a form of power grab by procedure rather than by coup."

from The Atlantic

(cont'd tomorrow)