China’s legislature has voted to remove presidential term limits from its Constitution. That change allows China’s current president, Xi Jinping, to potentially rule indefinitely.  

On Sunday, March 11th, the National People’s Congress’s nearly 3,000 hand-picked delegates unanimously voted in favor of the amendment proposing the removal of presidential term limits. Congress voted, 2,958 in favor, two opposed and three abstaining.

President Xi Jinping, who assumed leadership in 2012, has reached a power level not seen since the era of Mao Zedong.

“In some ways, the move represents the end of China’s 40-year-long reform era…The era began after the death of Chairman Mao Zedong in 1976, when China tried to move away from the political violence and cult of personality that characterized his rule,” said NPR correspondent Anthony Kuhn.  

Mao Zedong served as chairman of the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1959, and led the Chinese Communist Party from 1935 until his death; he is known for killing more people than Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.

The two-consecutive-term limit to China’s presidency was put in place by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1982. China claims that they are making this change in response to popular demand but have yet to show results of surveys verifying this information.

“Criticism of the move has been largely censored on the Internet, so it’s hard to gauge public opinion on the matter,” said Kuhns.

While this idea has been met with great backlash, supporters feel this is just another way of securing the “chinese dream”. As Xi’s vision of the “chinese dream” included global leadership and required a prolonged presence of the president.

“Xi Jinping has presided over so many important projects such as economic reforms and the fight against corruption. There was a consensus that we supported him having more time to finish his work,” said Dou Yanli, a delegate from eastern Shandong province.

“ I do not think China’s legislature voting to remove presidential term limits from its Constitution is a good idea… I don’t think many (if any) presidents would make it a third term since we only had one ever (FDR) but I don’t think we should risk it…I cannot see this happening in the United States,” responded AP Government teacher Nicholas Varanelli upon hearing the news.