China edged closer to a return to one-man rule as the Communist Party prepared constitutional changes that would allow Xi Jinping to serve as president indefinitely.
BEIJING — China edged closer to a return to one-man rule as the Communist Party prepared constitutional changes that would allow Xi Jinping to serve as president indefinitely.
A proposal to eliminate presidential term limits, announced Sunday by state media, would abolish an institutional check introduced after Mao Zedong’s death in 1976 and risks a return to internecine power struggles that hobbled China during past leadership successions.
Xi has accumulated essentially unrivaled authority in recent months, a hold on power he now appears likely to retain after his second terms as Communist Party chief and president expire roughly five years from now. The scrapping of language that limits a president’s time in power to two terms is part of a set of constitutional amendments lawmakers are expected to rubber stamp at their annual parliamentary session, which starts in a week — a formality in Xi’s march toward dominance.
