So over in China, Xi is attempting to have the 10 year term limit on the Presidency removed. It appears that this will pass. Basically he can be ruler for life, which kinda rhymes with Dictator*.
Some Chinese folks didn’t like this much and started using the letter N along with other words/phrases to show their dislike of the idea. Of course, China thenbanned the letter N and other words from the web.
I haven’t been paying much attention to China but this doesn’t seem like a very good development. Anyone have any insight into a) if this will work with the Chinese public b) what other countries (read Taiwan) think about it?
Slee
*At least it does in my totally made up Chinese vocabulary.
It’s not exactly an unexpected development. He’s already pushed beyond the old limits, and in this latest congress his ‘thought’ has been enshrined as part of the CCP and party thinking. Basically, he’s the most powerful leader since Mao.
There will always be a rebellious progressive youth seeking to reform their government, but the vast majority of chinese people seem like uneducated rednecks. I doubt there will be much resistance because of how rural china is. With only a handful of decent cities they probably don’t have the widespread communication. Let alone enough access to unrestricted knowledge to form a powerful movement against the government’s actions. It’ll go through, and they’ll get over it. China will eventually collapse, change government, or get caught up in war against a super power.
There are Chinese companies, like HNA, with huge amounts of debt. Tha lack of free financial information means that it is hard to tell what is going on with the economy. There has certainly been overbuilding and overbuying. The government is trying to get some of these companies to sell off properties to reduce their debts, but too much of that and the market for them might collapse. Chinese currency reserves go only so far. A collapse is not out of the question, and since the legitimacy of the government rests on prosperity, that could cause big problems.
China is pushing militarily. They may get into a war if they overstep, though I think that less likely than an economic collapse.
I think a change of government would be through a coup, not a democracy movement.
Freedom of information is not just good for politics, but is good for business. That is a big weakness of their system.
Seconding “are you kidding” here - China has more than 15 cities that are bigger than New York, and more than 160 with greater than 1 million population. Around 800 million Chinese live in urban areas, with only 600M rural. I’m not sure where you get this “uneducated redneck” thing.
Although it’s true they don’t have access to unrestricted knowledge, the idea that China is a sleepy rural backwater is laughably inaccurate.
Just to go along with this, they also have more people on their internet than, well, we have people who live in this country. Actually…roughly double the number of Chinese internet users than US citizens. Granted, they have only limited access to the wider internet and some of the staple apps we use like Google and Facebook, but they have their own versions that work pretty well for them (even if they are a lot more big brother-esque for my comfort).
I went to hong kong and then traveled with a few people across china and I kept making comparisons in my head about how the people I met reminded me of the rednecks back home.
Maybe it’s just anecdotal, spent less than a month there. I went from a “high tier” city to a “low tier” city. So I assume the rest of china besides the few good cities are all what trump would call “shitholes”
Also worth mentioning I was robbed in china, and nearly scammed multiple times. I guess I personally just had an unlucky experience? But from what I read online everyone seemed to agree with me and reinforce my opinion about china. Literally none of what I said did I look up or research to confirm was true, this is entirely my opinion. If I had to tell recommend where to travel in china, I’d tell them to stay in hong kong. It’s the only place that seemed half decent.
I don’t see this as being a huge difference. It’s not like Chinese people got to vote for Xi on his first two terms. China wasn’t a democracy before this change and it isn’t one now.
Exactly. And even if it was a democracy, term limits are anti-democratic in themselves. It’s telling the public, No you can’t vote for that person again.
It’s a step away from being a republic towards being a monarchy. Before the change the Party had multiple factions that would vie for power and policies. So while not anywhere close to a democracy, China had mechanisms to respond to the needs of the country. Xi is stepping away from this by stifling dissent even within the Party. No good will come of this.
Well, in a way it’s not a big deal, but in another it kind of is. It’s not that big a deal as in the past once the term limits struck the guy in charge would simply become the power behind the throne with his chosen successor. Of course, usually the people terming out were rather old and didn’t have that long to live anyway, but for all practical purposes it’s not like they lost all their power once they were termed out.
Xi has broken the mold wrt this, however…one of the things some were looking for in this congress was if he’d choose a successor or not and start setting the stage for his own transition to man behind the throne (he didn’t…instead it was basically the Xi show with him giving long 5 hour speeches).
Yeah, the Chinese don’t vote for any of the top brass in the CCP (they do get to vote somewhat for lower level local officials in some places, and Hong Kong is SUPPOSED to be part of the one country two systems thingy and get to vote for their own leaders and laws), but this is still quite a big change and sets a precedence that might not be very good for China. Like I said, China hasn’t seen anyone with this much personal political power since Mao…and, frankly, while Xi is less blood thirsty and ruthless than Mao he’s also a hell of a lot smarter than Mao was, and he is definitely taking China in a more aggressive direction both internally and wrt foreign policy. He has some serious hurdles to get over wrt China’s long term prospects, but he’s been very good at basically bringing the various factions into the fold…either by massive arrests with his ‘corruption campaign’ to just brilliant political maneuvering. He’s got basically the entire military in his pocket at this point as well as most of the propaganda agencies and he’s got the top political positions nearly all locked up. His ‘thought’ now directly influences CCP policy and doctrine. This is huge.
I don’t feel that Xi has the same level of power that Deng had. Xi has power, obviously, but I feel that it’s more the power of being the head of a faction rather than power as an individual. So keeping Xi in the presidency represents more of a victory for his faction than it does a personal victory (although Xi obviously benefits from it).
This is another kind of right and kind of wrong thing. He doesn’t have the same level of power Deng had…sort of. Deng never had his ‘thought’ made part of the the CCP core philosophy, he never had the control of the military or other organs of state that Xi and his faction has (and yeah, he had is own faction…factions have been a thing since Mao in China as well as pretty much every other communist country), but he also ruled right after Mao (after he got rid of Hua Guofeng) and had a lot of power to change things and set a new course. And Xi isn’t at the end of his power…really, even if they don’t ratify end of the term limit thing he is just starting his second 5 year term.
Of course, the wheels could start to come off, and if that happens under Xi’s watch then his power will evaporate or at least be lessened. And some of the other factions, especially that of the Great Toad are always trying to subvert Xi and his faction as well as get back power for themselves. Xi is on a tightrope where one slip will be all it takes, and there are a lot of things that could knock him off. But at the same time, he’s also gathering more and more power (or honey) to himself while strangling those who still have power in other sectors of the government.
I feel bad for the Chinese who seem to be living in interesting times. I do love the Winny the Poo and Tigger imagery of Xi and Obama though.
China’s parliament voted to repeal presidential term limits, allowing President Xi Jinping to keep power indefinitely. All Xi Jinping needs to do is win re-election, which with his control over the citizens should not prove difficult.
