China's presidential term limit: Opinion

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 on its leaders, the nation’s future development will depend on a dice roll. If the leader makes the right decision, thank God; if the person makes mistakes, we will have no way to stop him. Power witho

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 viewed with skepticism. It would be much more productive to look at the proposed constitutional change in the context of China’s own political traditions and ideology. To understand what works and what d