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China's Xi could rule for life, as two-term limit set to be scrapped

mortenjorck 9y ago
I don't know if WaPo changed the headline or if this was an attempt to shorten it for HN, but the article currently has "could rule for life" rather than "to rule for life." The latter may well happen, but at least for now, it's only the former.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  We really won’t know until Xi dies in office. Seeing as the NPC is just a rubber stamp congress, there are no other checks and balances on the core leader’s power except what happens between old men in smoky rooms. What will happen is entirely opaque.
  - coldtea 9y ago
    >We really won’t know until Xi dies in office. We would also know if he is replaced 5-10 years down the line while still very much alive.
    - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      Sure, I was talking about the if true happens case.
      - Jesus_Jones 9y ago
        It's at least true for the foreseeable future that he'll be the leader. Just like you don't know if a current relationship will persist through the end of your lives until one of you dies. :-)
- dang 9y ago
  We've changed the title above to the article's HTML doc title. Submitted title here was "With a dash of Putin and an echo of Mao, China’s Xi to rule for life".
Glyptodon 9y ago
I don't really understand why power obsessed people don't seem to recognize that at some point retirement is graceful. (Thinking of Robert Mugabe, for example.)
- subway 9y ago
  Fear that the new power won't overlook the misdeeds they (the old power) undertook while in power.
  - neverminder 9y ago
    I've heard someone say that Putin is at the same time the ruler and prisoner of Kremlin for exactly this reason.
    - makmanalp 9y ago
      I've read something that Yeltsin resigned to Putin in exchange for forgiveness, whatever that entails: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Yeltsin#Resignation_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Yeltsin#Resignation_2
- AnimalMuppet 9y ago
  "Power obsessed" is the answer to your own question, I think. And it's not just because they enjoy power. It's more like riding a tiger. There is no time, ever, when it is safe to get off.
  - tabtab 9y ago
    Great analogy! Kudos.
- IntronExon 9y ago
  If they were capable of thinking like that, they wouldn’t be in the position they were in. It must take a really incredible lust for power, and a very high opinion of oneself to be what amounts to a dictator in the first place. Humble, sensible, rations, people don’t become the Mugabes of the world, in the same way that people who can measure rewards and risks don’t rob liquor stores.
d1ffuz0r 9y ago
good thing - he will be able to finish all planned his reforms
- AnimalMuppet 9y ago
  That presumes that his planned reforms are in fact a "good thing". That's possible. It's possible that they aren't, too... and, if that turns out to be the case, nobody can stop him.
scandox 9y ago
Once again it seems to me that Ai Wei Wei's quote about China is pertinent: “Can China be a global power? I don’t think so. It can gain an advantage, that’s true. But it doesn’t have soul. It doesn’t have heart. It doesn’t trust its own people. So it has no self-identity in the sense that it has never accepted human rights as common values. No freedom of speech, no independent judicial system. If those don’t exist, how can you have creativity? How can you be a country? So forget about China. China is an illusion. It’s there, it’s large. But nobody can tell you what it is.” We live so much with representational democracy - so close to it - that we take it entirely for granted. We imagine that our situation would be somehow replicable with other forms of government. That we could have a benign autocracy and everything could be the same. People talk about China as if they're just a slightly different version of us. But instead of a mirror or an aspiration they ought to be a warning.
- tomca32 9y ago
  "It doesn’t have heart. It doesn’t trust its own people. So it has no self-identity in the sense that it has never accepted human rights as common values. No freedom of speech, no independent judicial system." All of this was true of the USSR and yet it was a global super-power for half a century.
  - tabtab 9y ago
    It was a military super-power, yes, but that was about it. With the possible exception of having some great classical-style composers, it otherwise was not an inspiring country. You sided with them to have big weapons on your side, not for any other reason.
    - hangonhn 9y ago
      I think that's a bit unfair. Their ideals did inspire a number of other countries to revolution, including China. The USSR did it first and its example was emulated by other countries with some local variations. Many of the early Chinese leaders were educated in the USSR and inspired by Lenin and even Stalin. I think it's only in our backwards looking view, having "won" the Cold War, that the USSR doesn't look so inspiring but to a early 1900s peasant, a successful peasant revolt that toppled a great empire is nothing to sneeze at.
alexnewman 9y ago
Paywall someone wanna translate?
dang 9y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16457998 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16457998

I don't know if WaPo changed the headline or if this was an attempt to shorten it for HN, but the article currently has "could rule for life" rather than "to rule for life." The latter may well happen, but at least for now, it's only the former.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago
We really won’t know until Xi dies in office. Seeing as the NPC is just a rubber stamp congress, there are no other checks and balances on the core leader’s power except what happens between old men in smoky rooms. What will happen is entirely opaque.
- coldtea 9y ago
  >We really won’t know until Xi dies in office. We would also know if he is replaced 5-10 years down the line while still very much alive.
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    Sure, I was talking about the if true happens case.
    - Jesus_Jones 9y ago
      It's at least true for the foreseeable future that he'll be the leader. Just like you don't know if a current relationship will persist through the end of your lives until one of you dies. :-)
dang 9y ago
We've changed the title above to the article's HTML doc title. Submitted title here was "With a dash of Putin and an echo of Mao, China’s Xi to rule for life".

Glyptodon 9y ago

I don't really understand why power obsessed people don't seem to recognize that at some point retirement is graceful. (Thinking of Robert Mugabe, for example.)

subway 9y ago
Fear that the new power won't overlook the misdeeds they (the old power) undertook while in power.
- neverminder 9y ago
  I've heard someone say that Putin is at the same time the ruler and prisoner of Kremlin for exactly this reason.
  - makmanalp 9y ago
    I've read something that Yeltsin resigned to Putin in exchange for forgiveness, whatever that entails: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Yeltsin#Resignation_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Yeltsin#Resignation_2
AnimalMuppet 9y ago
"Power obsessed" is the answer to your own question, I think. And it's not just because they enjoy power. It's more like riding a tiger. There is no time, ever, when it is safe to get off.
- tabtab 9y ago
  Great analogy! Kudos.
IntronExon 9y ago
If they were capable of thinking like that, they wouldn’t be in the position they were in. It must take a really incredible lust for power, and a very high opinion of oneself to be what amounts to a dictator in the first place. Humble, sensible, rations, people don’t become the Mugabes of the world, in the same way that people who can measure rewards and risks don’t rob liquor stores.

d1ffuz0r 9y ago

good thing - he will be able to finish all planned his reforms

AnimalMuppet 9y ago
That presumes that his planned reforms are in fact a "good thing". That's possible. It's possible that they aren't, too... and, if that turns out to be the case, nobody can stop him.

scandox 9y ago

Once again it seems to me that Ai Wei Wei's quote about China is pertinent: “Can China be a global power? I don’t think so. It can gain an advantage, that’s true. But it doesn’t have soul. It doesn’t have heart. It doesn’t trust its own people. So it has no self-identity in the sense that it has never accepted human rights as common values. No freedom of speech, no independent judicial system. If those don’t exist, how can you have creativity? How can you be a country? So forget about China. China is an illusion. It’s there, it’s large. But nobody can tell you what it is.” We live so much with representational democracy - so close to it - that we take it entirely for granted. We imagine that our situation would be somehow replicable with other forms of government. That we could have a benign autocracy and everything could be the same. People talk about China as if they're just a slightly different version of us. But instead of a mirror or an aspiration they ought to be a warning.

tomca32 9y ago
"It doesn’t have heart. It doesn’t trust its own people. So it has no self-identity in the sense that it has never accepted human rights as common values. No freedom of speech, no independent judicial system." All of this was true of the USSR and yet it was a global super-power for half a century.
- tabtab 9y ago
  It was a military super-power, yes, but that was about it. With the possible exception of having some great classical-style composers, it otherwise was not an inspiring country. You sided with them to have big weapons on your side, not for any other reason.
  - hangonhn 9y ago
    I think that's a bit unfair. Their ideals did inspire a number of other countries to revolution, including China. The USSR did it first and its example was emulated by other countries with some local variations. Many of the early Chinese leaders were educated in the USSR and inspired by Lenin and even Stalin. I think it's only in our backwards looking view, having "won" the Cold War, that the USSR doesn't look so inspiring but to a early 1900s peasant, a successful peasant revolt that toppled a great empire is nothing to sneeze at.

alexnewman 9y ago

Paywall someone wanna translate?

dang 9y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16457998 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16457998