Criticism grows over proposal for removing limit on term of China's President

Beijing: There is growing criticism in China against the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s proposal of extending current President Xi Jinping’s tenure for an unlimited period. Reporters and writers, who were once a part of the government media have started criticising the proposal to make Jinping the leader for an unlimited period. Articles have already been published, appealing the members of the ruling Communist Party to vote against the proposal.

The Communist Party brought an open resolution to remove the ‘Two Term’ limitation clause, for the President and the Vice-President, from the national constitution. Therefore, there were clear indications that Jinping would continue to be at the helm in China even after 2023. Li Datong, former editor of the ‘China Youth Daily’ had openly expressed displeasure about the Communist Party’s resolution.

Datong had openly appealed to the Chinese Parliamentarians, to vote against the resolution allowing Jinping to lead the country for an unlimited period of time. Datong had warned that this resolution regarding President Jinping, would take the country back to the era of Mao Tse-tung, the Communist Party founder. It has been revealed that this resolution which appeared as a post on a social media site in the form of a letter has been promptly ‘blocked’.

But it is seen that this has started echoing on the social and broadcasting media, in different forms. Senior journalist Wang Xiangwei has written a very blunt article about this in the ‘South China Morning Post’, a daily published from Hong Kong. The article by Wang Xiangwei gains importance in view of his previous association with ‘China Daily’, which is considered to be the mouth piece of the Chinese government.

In his article, Wang Xiangwei has expressed fear that Xi Jinping would continue as the President of China till the year 2032. In his article, he has drawn attention to the warnings given by the past Presidents ‘Deng Xiaoping’ and ‘Jiang Zemin’. Some expert analysts from China have compared Jinping to Russian President Vladimir Putin; and has warned of his rule and possible circumstances in China. ‘If Jinping remains in power for too long, it will affect his decision making and policies; and this could be harmful for China’, Wang Xiangwei has warned in his article.

Xi Jinping took over as the Chief of the ruling Communist Party and President of China, in the year 2012. Subsequently, the ruling party had approved his extension of five years in October last year.