Should-Read: I had thought that the Chinese bureaucracy understood in its bones the Five Good Emperors problem—that after Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius there came Commodus—as sufficient reason never to allow the restoration of lifetime tenures or single-dominant-politican practices. It looks like I was wrong: Willy Lam: China Paves Way For Xi Jinping To Extend Rule Beyond 2 Terms: "'Xi Jinping has finally achieved his ultimate goal when he first embarked on Chinese politics...
...that is to be the Mao Zedong of the 21st century,” said Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University in Hong Kong.... Last year... his name and a political theory attributed to him were added to the party constitution as he was given a second five-year term as general secretary. It was the latest move by the party signaling Xi’s willingness to break with tradition and centralize power.... “What is happening is potentially very dangerous because the reason why Mao Zedong made one mistake after another was because China at the time was a one-man show,” Lam said. “For Xi Jinping, whatever he says is the law. There are no longer any checks and balances.” Xi is coming to the end of his first five-year term as president and is set to be appointed to his second term at an annual meeting of the rubber-stamp parliament that starts March 5. The proposal to end term limits will likely be approved at that meeting. Term limits on officeholders have been in place since they were included in the 1982 constitution, when lifetime tenure was abolished...
