Not my president: meet the Chinese students standing up to Xi Jinping

At last, some students in the West are campaigning for freedom and democracy. Following years of supposedly rad students banning pop songs about sex, and force-fielding their campuses against offensive speakers, and even expelling certain newspapers from their common rooms as if they were heretical abominations, a group of students has emerged to demand more liberty, not less. They’re Chinese students, studying in Western universities, and the target of their youthful liberal ire is Chinese President Xi Jinping.

This week, Xi convinced the annual sitting of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, to scrap the two-term limit on presidency. They didn’t take much convincing, by the looks of things. Out of 2,964 votes, three delegates abstained and just two voted against Xi’s proposals. (I love those two rebels, whoever they are.) This was an exercise in rubber-stamping and it will mean Xi can go on for as long as he likes.