Historic meeting lauds lifetime power for Chinese President

Chinese President Xi Jinping applauds during the opening session of the National People's Congress, China's legislature, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday. (AFP)

BEIJING: Thousands of Chinese legislators erupted into enthusiastic applause on Monday over plans to give President Xi Jinping a lifetime mandate to mold the Asian giant into a global superpower.
China’s rubber-stamp Parliament met in the imposing Great Hall of the People for an annual session that will make Xi the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, concentrating the growing might of the military, economy and state in the hands of one man.
As Xi looked on from a stage dominated by mostly male party leaders in dark suits, a constitutional amendment to scrap the two-term limit for the presidency was read out to the chamber, prompting fervent applause.
The legislators are all but certain to approve the amendment this Sunday, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership sets the agenda for the National People’s Congress (NPC).
The text says the change “will be conducive to safeguarding the authority and the unified leadership of the CCP Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core and to strengthening and perfecting the national leadership system.”
The amendment was presented after Premier Li Keqiang delivered a report warning that the country is fighting “three critical battles” against financial risk, poverty and pollution.
The government set an economic growth target of around 6.5 percent for 2018, in line with expectations but lower than the 6.9 percent GDP increase in 2017.
It announced an 8.1 percent increase for the defense budget to 1.11 trillion yuan ($175 billion) this year, giving the world’s largest armed forces a boost after spending growth slowed in the previous two years.
The report also warned Taiwan that China “will never tolerate any separatist schemes” amid tensions between the mainland and the self-ruled island.
But the spotlight was squarely on the party’s most powerful leader in more than four decades.
Lifting term limits would allow the 64-year-old leader to stay on as party chief, head of the military and president beyond 2023, when his second term is due to end.
“I support Xi Jinping. I support the constitution change,” Zhou Feng, a delegate from Shanghai, told AFP.
Another delegate from central Henan province said “Xi Jinping is great,” but several other legislators refused to answer questions about the amendment.
Censors have worked furiously to stamp out dissenting voices on social media, blocking dozens of words from “disagree” to “emperor” on the Twitter-like Weibo website in recent days.