China to drop presidential term limits, clearing way for Xi Jinping to stay on

China’s Communist Party (CCP) has proposed amending the country’s constitution to allow President Xi Jinping to serve a third term in office.

State-run news agency Xinhua said the Party will remove the provision that the President and Vice President “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms” from the constitution of the People’s Republic of China.

The proposed amendment will have to be ratified by China’s rubber-stamp parliament – the National People’s Congress (NPC) – in March.

When it goes into effect, Xi will be free to serve indefinitely as China’s head of state, the strongest indication yet he is intending to maintain power at the top beyond the two 5-year terms served by his predecessors for the past 20 years.

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Wednesday, October 25, as the new lineup was unveiled for the Chinese Communist Party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee. The new lineup did not include an heir apparent to Xi, who analysts predict will dominate the country's politics for decades to come.

XI, left, stands with his father, Xi Zhongxun, and his younger brother, Xi Yuanping, in 1958. Xi Zhongxun was a communist revolutionary who held several positions in the National People's Congress.

From 1969 to 1975, Xi worked?as an agricultural laborer in Liangjiahe, China. He was among the millions of urban youths who were "sent down," forced to leave cities to work as laborers in the countryside.

Xi, right, poses for a photo as a college student in 1977.

A 1979 photo of Xi as he worked for the general office of the Central Military Commission. From 1979 to 1982, Xi was the personal secretary for Defense Minister Geng Biao.

Xi listens to villagers in north China's Zhengding County in 1983. At the time, he was secretary of the Zhengding County Committee.

Xi poses for a photo as he sits in his office in 1983.

Xi -- in the back row, second from right -- poses with a group in Muscatine, Iowa, in 1985. As part of an agricultural delegation, he was making his first trip to the United States.

Xi receives a key to the city from Muscatine Mayor Gerald Powell.

Xi visits San Francisco in 1985.

Xi and his new wife, folk singer Peng Liyuan, pose for a photo on China's Dongshan Island in 1987.

Xi, as the Communist Party secretary of Ningde, China, participates in farm work in 1988.

Xi and Peng in 1989.

Xi, left, meets with citizens of Fuzhou, China, in 1993. He was the city's party secretary from 1990-1996.

Xi, front left, helps reinforce a levee of the Minjiang River in 1995.

Xi meets with Wu Poh-hsiung, vice president of the opposition party Kuomintang, in 2000. From 1996-2002, Xi held various posts in China's Fujian Province, including governor.

As Shanghai's party secretary in 2007, Xi welcomes former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Pepsi President and CEO Indra Krishanamurthy Nooyi.

Xi talks with hearing-impaired students at a school in Shanghai in 2007.

Xi brings blankets to a villager after ice storms in 2008. That year, Xi became China's vice president.

Xi kicks a soccer ball in 2008 as he inspects a field in Qinhuangdao, China. The stadium was hosting games during the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Xi chats with former US President Jimmy Carter in 2009. Carter was attending a Beijing dinner that celebrated 30 years of US-China relations.

Xi feeds swans during an official visit to Hungary in 2009.

Xi and US Vice President Joe Biden inspect an honor-guard contingent during a welcoming ceremony in Beijing in 2011.

Xi pushes his father as he walks with his wife and his daughter, Xi Mingze, in 2012.

Xi became China's President in March 2013. Here, he walks with US President Barack Obama before a bilateral meeting in Rancho Mirage, California, in June 2013.

Xi meets with former US President Bill Clinton in Beijing in 2013.

Xi visits Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba, in 2014.

Xi and Peng pose with the Obamas before a state dinner in Washington in 2015.

Xi has dinner with US President Donald Trump at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in April 2017.

Xi shakes hands with teachers and students while visiting a university in Beijing in May 2017.

Xi inspects a military garrison in Hong Kong in June 2017.

Xi shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin before a meeting in Moscow in July 2017.

Xi, center, attends the closing session of the 19th National Congress in October 2017.

US President Donald Trump and XI take part in a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on Thursday, November 9, 2017, in Beijing during Trump's visit to Asia.

Chinese President Xi Jinping

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Break with tradition

Plans to change the country’s constitution for the first time since 2004 were announced in December, with most analysts predicting the Party would seek to modify the country’s top legal document to create a National Supervision Commission (NSC), a country-wide anti-corruption task force with sweeping new powers.

In January, the Party’s top body proposed also adding “Xi Jinping Thought” to the document, enshrining it alongside Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought as a key guiding principle of the country.

Experts predicted last October that Xi may seek to stay on as leader after he failed to unveil an obvious successor at a major party congress, appearing to break with an unwritten rule of two five-year terms as head of the party.

However, some doubted whether this would require a constitutional change, saying Xi could simply retain power through his role as General Secretary of the CCP, which does not have term limits, rather than the ceremonial presidency.

Deng Xiaoping, the most powerful Chinese leader after Mao Zedong, gave up most of his official titles but retained a tight grip on the country until his death in 1997.

By contrast, Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao was pushed out of his political roles and stripped of influence once Xi came to power. Since then he has rarely taken part in public engagements and many of his allies have fallen to Xi’s anti-corruption campaign.

Thomas Kellogg, executive director of Georgetown Law Asia, wrote last year that were Xi to follow the traditional 10-year term limit, “no doubt (he) could find a way to include himself in future high-flying global confabs, just as he could insert himself into key national meetings usually chaired by the Chinese president.”

“But doing so would be made more difficult and create a potential rival in the form of the new president,” he said. “Authoritarian rulers must constantly worry about whether their top lieutenants will seek to gain political advantage by betraying their own political patron, and Xi would be no exception.”