UN Xi Jinping set to become next Mao Zedong - Term limits to be removed from constitution

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/25/world/asia/china-xi-jinping.html

Not that it really matters since China is a one party dictatorship anyway, it's going back to being a one man, cult of personality dictatorship.

BEIJING — China’s Communist Party cleared the way for President Xi Jinping to stay in power, perhaps indefinitely, by proposing that the nation’s Constitution be changed to abolish a two-term limit on the presidency.

The Communist Party Central Committee, a council of senior officials from the ruling party, “proposed to remove the expression that the President and Vice-President of the People’s Republic of China ‘shall serve no more than two consecutive terms’ from the country’s Constitution,” the Xinhua News Agency said on its English-language website.

Since each term is five years in length, the Constitution had limited Mr. Xi, who became president in 2013, to 10 years in office.

The announcement was not immediately reported by Xinhua’s Chinese-language service or other Chinese-language news media in China, a development that was all the more puzzling because the Central Committee is not due to meet until Monday.

Even if prematurely announced, the move appears to be the most dramatic sign that Mr. Xi harbors ambitions to stay in power longer than his two immediate predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, both of whom stepped down after two terms.

It also confirmed that Mr. Xi has amassed enough power to rewrite the rules that constrained recent Chinese leaders, and that were aimed at preventing the reappearance of the cult of personality that had surrounded the People’s Republic’s founding father, Mao Zedong.

 

[AnOminous]

Even Putin had the modicum of feigned modesty to step down and spend a term as PM to let Medyedev play figurehead president so as not to do two consecutive terms as president.

As crazy and fucked-up and Machiavellian (in the bad way) as Putin is, I don't think he's going to destroy the world. This chink might.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

You seem to just think that China is going to be Japan again. But you are wrong and there is one reason you are wrong, China's size.

Well, I'll admit that it's the basic assumption that they will pan out in a similar way.
In the 80s you couldn't go into a bookstore without finding books on how the Japanese are going to rule the world come 2000... and then the bubble burst.

And just to highlight how utterly insane Japan's economy was doing at the height of the bubble:
The area of the imperial palace in Tokyo had a real estate value that exceeded the combined real estate value of all of Florida. Or Canada.
The real estate of all of Japan was worth as much as the entire USA combined. Which was incidently a third of the global combined price of real estate, if I'm not mistaken.

It is true, China might be able to avoid a bubble by being smart and keeping their economy sustainable, but with their massive real estate bubble, it's already too late for that I guess.
China could house almost the entire population of Germany in their currently empty megacities.

The question is: Can the government prevent this from blowing up in their faces?

As I said, I don't think it will pan out the exact same as with Japan, but it will be similar, I would say. At some point, the economy will stagnate and something big will happen to put a damper on it. Their large advantage is the huge size of their population, which is a giant domestic market that can sustain their economy, but it's also a weakness, since that huge market needs a lot of upkeep.
But since I'm not a fortune teller, I couldn't say what exactly is going to happen. Maybe the Chinese will actually manage to avoid an economical disaster, but whatever will happen, they are going to be a huge global player in a couple years time.

The reaction from foreign nations to that changed situation is something entirely different and I suppose it's somewhat predictable.
It will be that of an incredulous "What? The Chinese have taken over entire global markets? But they are just building cheap crap for a slave labor!" from a lot of normies since most people just assume what was true in the 80s and 90s is true today.
And then, they'll come up with some super fancy reasons such as the root of chinese success being some obscure book from 1000 years ago or so. Not necessarily cause they believe it, but since you can sell a lot of books with this method.

A short sidenote concerning foreign investments in China and how unfavorable that can be for foreign companies in the long run:
A friend of mine works for a company that has some facilities in China that they opened up together with some other company from Germany.
After some time, these two companies wanted to withdraw some assets from China since they were getting uneasy over how they were treated by the Chinese government. The other company started to set everything up to withdraw... and suddenly a couple of official lawyer guys show up at their German facility in China and declare that the entire thing is confiscated and put under Chinese management - just like that.

In that regard, the Chinese are very smart. They do not really open up their markets for anyone, they just enable people to pour money into Chinese infrastructure and to build a couple factories and so on, but in the long run, the moment these companies become unwelcome, their assets just get repossessed by the Chinese.

 

[Neil]

CHINESE CIVIL WAR 2, BAY-BEEEEEE
(please let there be some kind of radical political overhaul in China during my lifetime)

 

[whatever I feel like]

Your German friend is far from the only person to have to deal with that bullshit. Off the top of my head, Carrier had the same stuff happen to them.

 

[Coconut Gun]

Why are chinks completely unable to have functional governments for longer than a few decades at a time? Korea and Japan's governments don't count since they're just American, but everyone is yellow.

 

[The Demon]

In that regard, the Chinese are very smart. They do not really open up their markets for anyone, they just enable people to pour money into Chinese infrastructure and to build a couple factories and so on, but in the long run, the moment these companies become unwelcome, their assets just get repossessed by the Chinese.

so if it does blow up in their face and the bubble pops, no one is going to invest in china because of the chance of their investments being "seized"

 

[BoingBoingBoi]

Xi has already consolidated his power massively before this, and is massively bitter (understandably) over his treatment as a youth during the Cultural Revolution.

They had that Xi Jinping Thought recently to replace Mao's.

This is very much how govt often works in china. Some policy quietly becomes "effectively" the status quo long before it "officially" does, which is exactly what's happened here because of how xi has consolidated power.

I'm surprised China had a term limit in the first place, since the country is essentially a dictatorship. Removing it might cause a Soviet Union -style gerontocracy with senile old men hanging on to leadership positions for too long, which will eventually cause the whole system to collapse.

the power of the ccp is absolute but when xi took over there was much more ideological diversity. that is, xi actually had powerful political opponents who had a different vision for the party (the social democrats, say). but xi's "anti-corruption" drive got rid of them basically. now he officially has as much power as he recently unofficially gathered for himself.

China is doing great and has a bright future if they can walk a fine line between international-trade state-capitalism China and cultural-control communist china. The progress China is making in the sciences is putting the rest of the world to shame and showing the power of a determined government not encumbered by trying to carrot and stick investors into making the "right" choices.

never underestimate china's incompetence. the country is very big and most of it is full of empty highrises, gutter oil, and smog. be wary of the memes.

People will glorify China in the coming 1 or 2 decades for their economic success.
I can tell you already what we can expect:

There will be a shitton of theories as to why China is managing to leave all competition in the dust, there will be a lot of pseudo-scientist works that will search for China's success in their culture, history and for some time, you'll be able to buy stuff like "Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Manager Edition" and similarly nonsensical stuff.

The simple matter of fact is: It's a nation that is slowly turning from "cheap labour" to "hightech and science". There have been tons of foreign investments, used to modernize China and built infrastructure, they can now use that knowhow to climb to the top of technology. I mean, they have been used to build cheap hightech, first with imported parts, then they started to supply those parts locally. At some point, their R&D sector overtakes the other nations.

At some point, this will stagnate but the economy will not stop to bloat. We'll see a giant bubble economy and it will rather sooner than later get China off it's high horse. I assume their already rampant real estate bubble will be a massive cause for trouble, though their economy is much more strictly overseen by the government, so hell if I know how that will turn out.

Add to that a new personal cult centred around Xi Jinping and the upcoming years will be really interesting.

i share a similar outlook regarding your predictions but want to add to your first point on western reverse-orientalizing and idealizing of china that this explicit step towards dictatorship and china's favorable and powerful image is not setting a good precedent for global democracy. intellectuals in china are using trump as an argument for why democracy is bad, and now their gov't has effectively convinced them that it's completely unnecessary because look at how great xi is and how much better everything is getting. when that meme spreads across the globe, for however long china can avoid bursting its massive bubbles and have a strong and favorable image, people might not think democracy is worthwhile. (spoiler alert: it is).

two other things to keep in mind: 1) the chinese regime is a toddler and has only been borderline functional for about 30 years. they've developed at light speed and they dont have the competent infrastructure, bureaucracy, and legal systems to support it long term. there's my optimism anyway. 2) chinese history is nothing but one of a series of political disasters. dynasties consolidate power, and then giving way to a coup. to think that the ccp is somehow gonna break that trend magically when they're doing exactly what previous dynasties always did is dumb.

 

[Adolf Von Merkel]

If China were to become a Democracy it would probably be a lot more like Taiwan (Republic Of China) although it wouldn't be as rich, it would eventually reach economic stability.

The ROC/Taiwan has it's own Military, Leaders, Parliament, and Political Parties, its practically its own country even if it isn't recognized by the UN.

I doubt a government like taiwan would work in mainland china.
I think the chink would go for a strongman guy like Putin when the first crisis happen because decades of communist brainwash about how great is commie china.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

i share a similar outlook regarding your predictions but want to add to your first point on western reverse-orientalizing and idealizing of china that this explicit step towards dictatorship and china's favorable and powerful image is not setting a good precedent for global democracy. intellectuals in china are using trump as an argument for why democracy is bad, and now their gov't has effectively convinced them that it's completely unnecessary because look at how great xi is and how much better everything is getting. when that meme spreads across the globe, for however long china can avoid bursting its massive bubbles and have a strong and favorable image, people might not think democracy is worthwhile. (spoiler alert: it is).

If I'm not mistaken, there seems to be a consensus that Democracy is unchinese and just some fancy idea that the west needs to keep their politicians at bay, which is done in China by the glorious politburo and their moral superiority.
China most likely is going to claim that the other Nations need democracy cause they don't have traditional Chinese values like that of confucianism and thus the politicians of other nations are inherently bad, since they lack that moral foundation.
Which is kinda funny, coming from a Nation that became the playball of foreign powers during the time of colonization specifically cause they were unable to put together a strong, competent, unified government that could withstand the pressure from the outside. China became the playball of the west through no other reason than the ignorrance and egotism of their leaders of that time.

But that's also a cause for alarm.
China is driven by megalomania based on their self-image of being the driving cultural force and big hegemon throughout all of Asias history, but they also have a deep rooted inferiority complex, cause they were unable to withstand colonization and it took them well into the 20th century to overcome what they call the century of shame.

Of course they now flock to a strong leader that promises them to wash away the shame of the past and lead China to its glorious place as #1 Nation.

two other things to keep in mind: 1) the chinese regime is a toddler and has only been borderline functional for about 30 years. they've developed at light speed and they dont have the competent infrastructure, bureaucracy, and legal systems to support it long term. there's my optimism anyway. 2) chinese history is nothing but one of a series of political disasters. dynasties consolidate power, and then giving way to a coup. to think that the ccp is somehow gonna break that trend magically when they're doing exactly what previous dynasties always did is dumb.

The only question is: Will this system eventually collapse in a comparatively peaceful manner (like in the Soviet Union) or will we get Tiananmen Square 2.0.

 

[AnOminous]

Why are chinks completely unable to have functional governments for longer than a few decades at a time? Korea and Japan's governments don't count since they're just American, but everyone is yellow.

Because they're chinks. It's not like they're actually human. They're just insects who take human form for a while.

 

[BoingBoingBoi]

If I'm not mistaken, there seems to be a consensus that Democracy is unchinese and just some fancy idea that the west needs to keep their politicians at bay, which is done in China by the glorious politburo and their moral superiority.
China most likely is going to claim that the other Nations need democracy cause they don't have traditional Chinese values like that of confucianism and thus the politicians of other nations are inherently bad, since they lack that moral foundation.
Which is kinda funny, coming from a Nation that became the playball of foreign powers during the time of colonization specifically cause they were unable to put together a strong, competent, unified government that could withstand the pressure from the outside. China became the playball of the west through no other reason than the ignorrance and egotism of their leaders of that time.

This is basically right. Educated Beijingers are some of the most militant nationalist people you'll ever meet. They have the most cynical vision of the West you can imagine, disparaging all the advancements of the 20th and 21st century in the West as merely power grabs designed to ensure American global authority. Whatever kernels of truth you might believe in those kinds of ideas, the scary thing is that so many educated Chinese take it to the Nth degree, and see their "Chinese" way as both morally superior and artificially held down by American imperialism.

The cultural bankruptcy of China is difficult to overstate. Keep in mind that during the cultural revolution, which many Chinese lived through, effectively renounced its own tradition in favor of godless, reactionary communism. The idea that they have some unified culture because Xi opportunistically quotes the Lunyu once in a while is laughable. The only culture in China right now is nationalism and consumerism. There is no moral culture, dignity, respect for persons, communal ethics, or sense of justice anywhere to be found. And there is no rule of law or sense of propriety. It's really a sham of a country.

 

[AnOminous]

It's really a sham of a country.

But it's a really, really, really, really, really, really, really huge sham of a country with astounding numbers of people in it and enormous numbers of nuclear weapons.

So while its population is barely even human and almost insect-like, they could blow up the entire world just like we could.

And these rapacious insects are threatening our way of life. What do we do? REEEEEEEE!

 

[ToroidalBoat]

The ROC/Taiwan has it's own Military, Leaders, Parliament, and Political Parties, its practically its own country even if it isn't recognized by the UN.

For now. I hope it stays that way.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

Maybe if this guy slaughters 70 million of his own citizens it will finally slow down the wave of smug leftists who endlessly praise communism.

 

[millais]

This is basically right. Educated Beijingers are some of the most militant nationalist people you'll ever meet. They have the most cynical vision of the West you can imagine, disparaging all the advancements of the 20th and 21st century in the West as merely power grabs designed to ensure American global authority. Whatever kernels of truth you might believe in those kinds of ideas, the scary thing is that so many educated Chinese take it to the Nth degree, and see their "Chinese" way as both morally superior and artificially held down by American imperialism.

The cultural bankruptcy of China is difficult to overstate. Keep in mind that during the cultural revolution, which many Chinese lived through, effectively renounced its own tradition in favor of godless, reactionary communism. The idea that they have some unified culture because Xi opportunistically quotes the Lunyu once in a while is laughable. The only culture in China right now is nationalism and consumerism. There is no moral culture, dignity, respect for persons, communal ethics, or sense of justice anywhere to be found. And there is no rule of law or sense of propriety. It's really a sham of a country.

This. The true and legitimate inheritors of the Chinese cultural tradition are Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

 

[RP 520]

Maybe if this guy slaughters 70 million of his own citizens it will finally slow down the wave of smug leftists who endlessly praise communism.

You underestimate the blind ignorance of tankies.

 

[Dr. Tremolo]

Maybe if this guy slaughters 70 million of his own citizens it will finally slow down the wave of smug leftists who endlessly praise communism.

You underestimate the blind ignorance of tankies.

I don't think college commies like China in the first place, it's not real communism after all. They're not tankies, tankies are the folks who praise the USSR either dismissing communist inefficiency as Western propaganda or saying it was a good thing as adversity gives you strength or something.

 

[Chiang Kai-shek]

I remember reading, that the chinese do not view the future with optimism unlike us dirty westerners. Judging by current events you'll understand why.

CHINESE CIVIL WAR 2, BAY-BEEEEEE
(please let there be some kind of radical political overhaul in China during my lifetime)

We're gonna need a lot of helicopters

 

[This+]

Why are chinks completely unable to have functional governments for longer than a few decades at a time? Korea and Japan's governments don't count since they're just American, but everyone is yellow.

They were ruled under crackpot emperors and dictators for thousands of years, and the one chance they had at a functioning modern government was ruined by Communism and its battle against the Nationalists.

 

[CWCissey]

The constitution has been changed. All hail Chairman Xi.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-43361276