
China's Xi could rule for life, as two-term limit set to be scrapped - anthonyleecook
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/with-a-dash-of-putin-and-an-echo-of-mao-chinas-xi-sets-himself-up-to-rule-for-life-/2018/02/26/ddae5e3e-1ad7-11e8-8a2c-1a6665f59e95_story.html?utm_term=.6e9b977fc2ef
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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16457998](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16457998)

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scandox
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.

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tomca32
"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.

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tabtab
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.

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tomca32
It also inspired half of the world and had a massive cultural, artistic and
sports influence across the whole world. Space program that was well ahead of
the US for a good period time.

Classical composers as you mentioned, literature (Russian realism), opera &
ballet. Russian academies in those areas are still considered the best in the
world.

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tabtab
There was a brief period from about 1957 to 1965 where they seemed to be
gaining steam; but other than that, it was mostly other dictators that tried
to emulate and/or side with them, not general populations.

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mortenjorck
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.

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seanmcdirmid
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.

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coldtea
> _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.

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seanmcdirmid
Sure, I was talking about the if true happens case.

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Jesus_Jones
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. :-)

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Glyptodon
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.)

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subway
Fear that the new power won't overlook the misdeeds they (the old power)
undertook while in power.

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neverminder
I've heard someone say that Putin is at the same time the ruler and prisoner
of Kremlin for exactly this reason.

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makmanalp
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)

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alexnewman
Paywall someone wanna translate?

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d1ffuz0r
good thing - he will be able to finish all planned his reforms

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AnimalMuppet
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.

