China’s state media defend changes to constitution removing presidential term limits
‘We are increasingly confident that the key to China’s path lies in upholding strong Party leadership,’ Global Times editorial says
Chinese state media on Monday attacked critics of ending presidential term limits, which effectively allows President Xi Jinping to stay in office indefinitely, saying the key to the country’s path was following the Communist Party.
China’s largely ceremonial parliament on Sunday overwhelmingly voted to amend the constitution, scrapping the term restrictions and adding clauses to strengthen the party’s already dominating role in politics.
In the run-up to the vote, critics on Chinese social media attacked the move and drew parallels to North Korea or suggested a Mao Zedong-type cult of personality was forming. The party announced the proposals just last month.
In an editorial, widely read tabloid Global Times said Western political theories were of no use to China.
“We are increasingly confident that the key to China’s path lies in upholding strong party leadership and firmly following the leadership of the party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core,” it said.
“In these years we have seen the rise and decline of countries and particularly the harsh reality that the Western political system doesn’t apply to developing countries and produces dreadful results.”
The official China Daily newspaper reiterated a point previously made by the party’s mouthpiece People’s Daily that the amendment did not “imply lifetime tenure for any leader”.
