Beijing, Mar.12.– On Sunday, China’s parliament overwhelmingly approved a series of constitutional amendments that, among other changes, abolish the current two five-year term limits for the presidency and vice-presidency, a highly controversial move that allows President Xi Jinping to remain in power indefinitely and shifts the country back towards a system resembling Mao-era one-man rule.
Ben Blanchard and Christian Shepherd of Reuters report on the scene in the Great Hall of the People as the congressional vote was cast:
Reporters were briefly ushered from the main hall in the Great Hall of the People as delegates filled in their ballot papers, but allowed in to see them placing the papers, one by one, into large red ballot boxes around the room.
Xi cast his vote first, on the podium at the front of the hall, followed in turn by the other six members of the party’s elite Standing Committee, which runs China.
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The amendment, along with another to include “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” in the Constitution, further consolidates the Communist Party’s entrenched rule over Chinese society and politics ...
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