Roving Periscope: With a third term, ailing Xi may become China’s President-for-Life!

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: Utterly predictable, China never surprises anyone, not even the Chinese. Beijing listens to nobody but itself. That is why all its ambitious plans go haywire and fizzle out with clockwise precision. And that is also why it may never become a superpower—on the contrary, it has the ‘potential’ to disintegrate into half-a-dozen independent democracies once its Communist shackles meltdown.

Because of this predictability, nobody was surprised when Xi Jinping, 69, stage-managed an ‘unprecedented’ five-year term as the President of the People’s Republic of China on Friday.

He has been China’s paramount leader since 2012 and has systematically thrown out every single of his Communist Party rivals, including his immediate predecessor. Former President Hu Jintao, 79, was publicly ‘escorted out’ of the Communist Party of China’s National Congress in October 2022—to smoothen the way for Xi’s third term.

On Friday, China’s rubber-stamp parliament, known as the National People’s Congress (NPC), ‘unanimously re-elected’ him and endorsed the third term for Xi Jinping who concentrates all powers into his hands: he is China’s President, General Secretary of the CPC, and Chairman of the Military Commission.

In fact, he was ‘re-elected’ by the once-in-a-five-year National Congress of the ruling CPC in October last year, becoming the first Chinese leader after the party founder Mao Zedong to continue in power beyond the two five-year terms.

Since Hu Jintao, sitting next to Xi, could throw a spanner in the President’s carefully choreographed plans, he was suddenly ‘escorted out’—despite his protest—ostensibly because of ‘poor health’, the media reported last year.

Even NPC is no different from the CPC’s NC. Another rubber stamp, the Chinese Parliament is infamous for its routine endorsement of the CPC’s decisions. Therefore, its Friday ‘vote’ to ratify a third term for Xi was on the expected lines—a non-event.

The media reported that Xi is widely expected to continue in power for life.

He was already ‘re-elected’ as the General Secretary of the CPC during its last October Congress, which also elected a new leadership for all its top policy bodies—from Xi’s close inner circle.

This year’s ongoing annual session of the NPC is significant as it heralds a once-in-a-ten-year change of leadership of the Chinese government, including the Premier who presides over the State Council, or Central Cabinet.

The term of the present Premier Li Keqiang will end with this year’s NPC session. His successor, widely expected to be Li Qiang, a close associate of Xi, is set to be elected by the NPC on Saturday.

All the names of the new leadership were approved by the Plenum of the CPC headed by Xi a few weeks ago. The NPC approval is a routine formality.

The new Premier will address the annual press conference on Mar 13, the last day of this year’s annual NPC session.

But speculations are rife about Xi’s ‘poor health’….