President Xi Jinping’s second term was meant to come to an end in 2023. However, the news that the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee has moved to eliminate the constitution’s two-term limit for presidents suggests he plans on staying in power longer than this – and perhaps indefinitely. The rest of the world will now have to figure out how best to deal with him.
Xi is currently 64 years old, which means he could dominate Chinese politics until 2030. This would let him implement his ambitious ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, to link Eurasia through Chinese infrastructure and trade, and the ‘Made In China 2025’ plan, which aims to make China a manufacturing leader in advanced technologies like aviation, energy and IT. It would also allow him to put in place further policies to reach his overall goal of making China a ‘great modern socialist country’ by 2050 – just at the 100th anniversary of the takeover of China by Mao Zedong in 1949.
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