The term limit was abolished through a constitution amendment in 2018, enabling Xi to seek a third term.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to seal a third term in leadership at the upcoming Party Congress. While most observers believe Xi’s supporters will seek to anoint him president for life, there are some who think that’s a stretch. And yet some others think there is no guarantee that he will complete a full third term of five years.
Xi’s ardent supporters want him declared at the Party Congress as lifelong leader but there will be strong pulls and pressures at the highest echelons of the party power structure, and Xi might be forced to make compromises. The consensus as of now is that Xi will complete another five-year term. However, there is a faction that doubts if Xi will invariably complete a full third term.
„When all’s said and done, it’s a logical impossibility for [Xi] to go from victory to victory [indefinitely] … Victories always come to an end,“ says political scholar Xu Guang, according to Radio Free Asia.
„There will be a lot of bargaining … I think the most likely [outcome] is that he serves another five years at least,“ he added.
How Xi would cement his power will be interesting.
