‘A determination for China to make, not something for the United States to weigh in on’
The White House isn’t criticising China for removing term limits on its presidency, a sign of how US policy toward the one-party state has shifted as the US seeks cooperation on North Korea and trade.
China’s rubber-stamp legislature opened the way Sunday for President Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely. Past US administrations would have likely spoken out, given their long-standing criticism of China’s record on democracy and human rights.
But President Donald Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said Monday that Chinese rules on the presidency are “a determination for China to make, not something for the United States to weigh in on.”
If anything, Trump has been supportive of Xi’s expansion of power. While the constitutional change means the 64-year-old leader could become president for life, Trump quipped at a luncheon this month for Republican donors: “I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll give that a shot someday.”
Xi ascended to power in 2012. He’s simultaneously leader of the ruling Communist Party and commander of the 1 million-member armed forces. The two-term limit on the presidency had been in place for more than 35 years. Removing it upends a system enacted by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1982 to prevent a return to the bloody excesses of Mao Zedong’s lifelong dictatorship.
