Taking full advantage of the Western intellectual bankruptcy in relation to China, the Communist Party of China seems to have set a cat among the pigeons by calling for the removal of presidential term limits, enabling Xi, China's most powerful leader for decades, to stay in office indefinitely. Xi, who is also party chief and seen as the country's most formidable ruler since Mao Zedong, has been president since 2013 and the 64-year-old leader would have to step down in 2023 under the current system. But the party's Central Committee proposed deleting from the constitution the stipulation that a president "shall serve no more than two consecutive terms" of five years. The proposed change will be submitted to legislators at the annual full session of the National People's Congress starting March 5 in which Xi will get second term in the office.
Analysts have argued that Xi has been consistently scuttling the collective model of leadership that was promoted by Deng Xiaoping. Xi's two predecessors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, were named by Deng, the architect of China's economic reforms in the 1980s for the top position. Both served two five-year terms, but the incumbent leader is expected to play a much bigger role than his two immediate predecessors had played in the post-Deng era. The Central Committee also proposed adding Xi's "thought" to the national constitution, joining Mao again. Deng's name, however, was added to the constitution only after his death.
Unlike both Jiang and Hu, Xi often portrays himself as a strong believer in constitutionalism. In his recent remarks, Xi has reportedly said that the constitution is key to building a moderately prosperous society, building a modern socialist country and realising the "Chinese dream of national rejuvenation" - his slogan to restore the nation to its former glory. According to him, "No organisation or individual has the privilege to overstep the constitution or the law." That Xi is different from all his predecessors is a fact. The policy of each leader is different from the leader before mainly because of the changing challenges the country faces. Jiang Zemin's period was characterized by his decision to join the World Trade Organization to deepen China's engagements in the global system that required cheap labour and migration of rural people to coastal towns to turn China into a global manufacturing hub. By the time Jiang was replaced by Hu the process initiated by him had advanced to a certain level as the Chinese leadership was now in a position to build up domestic demand and improve social welfare system. It didn't mean Hu disagreed with Jiang; the Chinese were in fact living in a different era with different issues. After replacing Hu, Xi moved with change in continuity in order to improve domestic demand, encourage private sector, reduce privileges of public-sector enterprises, make banking system less political and welcome FDI with a renewed focus.
There is little or no doubt about the fact that since taking over as party general secretary in late 2012, Xi has waged a remorseless battle against corruption, which has seen more than one million people punished. A major outcome of the 19th Party Congress was the decision to establish a new anti-graft agency, the National Supervisory Commission, that will coordinate investigations at all levels of government and expand its jurisdiction to include non-party members. As far as China's post-Mao history is concerned, there is no political reformer; every leader is an agent for economic change ensuring constant adjustments in policy to keep the Communist Party of China in power. Political reforms mean constitutional democracy. But in China's meteoric rise, it's all about intra-party democracy. The US and other global powers hostile to China's rise will have to make do with its hybrid form of capitalism and one-party rule: take this one or none; you have no choice.