Editor’s Note: Steven Jiang is CNN’s senior producer in Beijing. He was born in Shanghai and moved to the United States from China as a teenager.
BeijingCNN
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Even by China’s standard, the annual session of the country’s largely ceremonial parliament seems to be a much more choreographed affair this year – with one thorny subject that almost none of the 3,000 legislators wants to broach in front of foreign media.
In and out of meeting venues, many delegates to the National People’s Congress (NPC) have appeared visibly uncomfortable when asked about the ruling Communist Party’s proposal to scrap presidential term limits in the Chinese constitution, which could pave the way for President Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely.
However, loud applause erupted from the delegates in the cavernous Great Hall of the People earlier this week, as a senior official explained that popular demand had prompted the party to call for removing the restriction on the presidency to two consecutive five-year terms.
On Sunday that move becomes official, with delegates set to wave through the amendment in a closed-door vote.
“The NPC used to be a forum where a limited amount of dissent could be shown by giving less than 100% approval for something,” said Duncan Innes-Ker, regional director for Asia at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
“It seems very unlikely that, even though there are a lot of concerns over this particular change, that anyone would raise it in a public environment in the current atmosphere.”
By midweek the 64-year-old Xi, already hailed the most powerful Chinese leader in decades, had himself given a ringing endorsement to this and other constitutional changes, calling them a reflection of the “common will of the party and the people.”
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Wednesday, October 25, as the new lineup was unveiled for the Chinese Communist Party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee. The new lineup did not include an heir apparent to Xi, who analysts predict will dominate the country's politics for decades to come.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Pictures From History/Newscom
XI, left, stands with his father, Xi Zhongxun, and his younger brother, Xi Yuanping, in 1958. Xi Zhongxun was a communist revolutionary who held several positions in the National People's Congress.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Xinhua/Newscom
From 1969 to 1975, Xi worked as an agricultural laborer in Liangjiahe, China. He was among the millions of urban youths who were "sent down," forced to leave cities to work as laborers in the countryside.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Xinhua/Newscom
Xi, right, poses for a photo as a college student in 1977.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Xinhua/Newscom
A 1979 photo of Xi as he worked for the general office of the Central Military Commission. From 1979 to 1982, Xi was the personal secretary for Defense Minister Geng Biao.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
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Xi listens to villagers in north China's Zhengding County in 1983. At the time, he was secretary of the Zhengding County Committee.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Pictures From History/Newscom
Xi poses for a photo as he sits in his office in 1983.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Muscatine Journal/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom
Xi -- in the back row, second from right -- poses with a group in Muscatine, Iowa, in 1985. As part of an agricultural delegation, he was making his first trip to the United States.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Muscatine Journal/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom
Xi receives a key to the city from Muscatine Mayor Gerald Powell.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Xinhua/Newscom
Xi visits San Francisco in 1985.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Xinhua/Newscom
Xi and his new wife, folk singer Peng Liyuan, pose for a photo on China's Dongshan Island in 1987.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
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Xi, as the Communist Party secretary of Ningde, China, participates in farm work in 1988.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Xinhua/Newscom
Xi and Peng in 1989.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Xinhua/Newscom
Xi, left, meets with citizens of Fuzhou, China, in 1993. He was the city's party secretary from 1990-1996.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
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Xi, front left, helps reinforce a levee of the Minjiang River in 1995.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
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Xi meets with Wu Poh-hsiung, vice president of the opposition party Kuomintang, in 2000. From 1996-2002, Xi held various posts in China's Fujian Province, including governor.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Shanghai Daily/Imaginechina/ZUMAPRESS
As Shanghai's party secretary in 2007, Xi welcomes former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Pepsi President and CEO Indra Krishanamurthy Nooyi.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Xinhua/Newscom
Xi talks with hearing-impaired students at a school in Shanghai in 2007.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Lan Hongguang/XinHua/Newscom
Xi brings blankets to a villager after ice storms in 2008. That year, Xi became China's vice president.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Huang Jingwen/Xinhua/Getty Images
Xi kicks a soccer ball in 2008 as he inspects a field in Qinhuangdao, China. The stadium was hosting games during the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Qiu Feng/Newscom
Xi chats with former US President Jimmy Carter in 2009. Carter was attending a Beijing dinner that celebrated 30 years of US-China relations.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Nagy Lajos/AP
Xi feeds swans during an official visit to Hungary in 2009.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Ng Han Guan/AP
Xi and US Vice President Joe Biden inspect an honor-guard contingent during a welcoming ceremony in Beijing in 2011.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Xinhua/Newscom
Xi pushes his father as he walks with his wife and his daughter, Xi Mingze, in 2012.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
506 collection/Alamy Stock Photo
Xi became China's President in March 2013. Here, he walks with US President Barack Obama before a bilateral meeting in Rancho Mirage, California, in June 2013.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Liu Weibing/XinHua/Newscom
Xi meets with former US President Bill Clinton in Beijing in 2013.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Xinhua/Alamy Stock Photo
Xi visits Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba, in 2014.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Xi and Peng pose with the Obamas before a state dinner in Washington in 2015.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Xi has dinner with US President Donald Trump at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in April 2017.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Wang Ye/Xinhua/Alamy Live News
Xi shakes hands with teachers and students while visiting a university in Beijing in May 2017.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Li Gang/Xinhua/Alamy Live News
Xi inspects a military garrison in Hong Kong in June 2017.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Sergei Ilnitsky/AFP/Getty Images
Xi shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin before a meeting in Moscow in July 2017.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Ju Peng/Xinhua/Newscom
Xi, center, attends the closing session of the 19th National Congress in October 2017.
Photos: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Andrew Harnik/AP
US President Donald Trump and XI take part in a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on Thursday, November 9, 2017, in Beijing during Trump's visit to Asia.
Grumbles
But not everyone has received Xi’s push for indefinite rule enthusiastically.
“This is history going backwards,” my Shanghai taxi driver exclaimed to his co-workers via speaker phone shortly after the news broke on February 25.
“Even Putin took turns with that Med-something guy for the presidency!”
“Whatever happens next,” he added. “Ordinary people’s sense of happiness has been going down.”
As the word spread, on WeChat, China’s leading social media platform, my feed was dominated by posts on this development – with a mixture of disbelief and cynicism about the almost-inevitable return of a life-long ruler, something the Communist nation has not seen since the death of its founding father Mao Zedong in 1976.
As the country’s notorious internet censors stepped in to remove any negative references or reactions to the story, keywords – ranging from “emperor” to “disagree” – and images were blocked across the Chinese cyberspace.
I began to notice a growing number of dead links as many chat sessions became quiet.
“I’m not going to opine on this issue to ensure the survival of this group,” wrote one banker friend, keenly aware that I’m a journalist for an international news organization.
While many of my childhood friends, who are now established young professionals, have clear political opinions but prefer to keep them to themselves in Xi’s China, older relatives attribute their apathy to a life-long lesson of “nothing good ever comes out of talking politics in China.”
A group of tourists stand by the Bund near the Huangpu river across the Pudong New Financial district, in Shanghai on March 14, 2016.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
“This change really has nothing to do with our daily lives – term limits or not,” a retired uncle declared over a holiday family lunch. “I don’t care about politics – and I’m not going to follow the news during the NPC.”
My relatives in Shanghai complain about many of the same things that I have heard when reporting across China – a widening income gap, rising cost of living and lack of upward social mobility – but they also share a palpable sense of pride in China’s unprecedented economic growth and global rise in the past few decades, including under Xi since late 2012.
“Xi knows what he wants and what he’s doing,” a Chinese executive at an American multinational company told me recently. “If you take politics or human rights out for a second, you’ll see he’s steering the country with the right vision.”
“He’s popular,” said Innes-Ker, the China analyst. “There’s little indication this change will be causing disruption or social unrest.”
A motorcyclist rides past a propaganda poster showing China's President Xi Jinping next to a freeway outside of Tongren, Qinghai province on March 2, 2018.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Backlash
For many who have become uneasy over Xi’s crackdown on personal liberties and civil society, though, the term-limit removal has hit a nerve, triggering not unrest in a tightly controlled country – but a surge in online search of the term “emigration” on search engine Baidu.
As Xi continues his ascent, he has been tightening his grip on the internet but a rising number of Chinese seem determined to scale the so-called “Great Firewall” to find unfiltered information.
Porcelain cups featuring portraits of Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and former Chinese leader Mao Zedong stand on display at a store window in Beijing, China, on Monday, Feb. 26, 2018. Xi is China's most powerful leader since Mao.
Bloomberg/Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
I keep getting friend requests on Facebook – long blocked in China – from family and friends whom I had never thought of as being capable or willing to evade censorship.
Strict censorship, along with a propaganda blitz, on the term-limit move has shown no sign of abating, with many viewing its intensity as an indication of the authorities’ surprise at the widespread public backlash.
The one phrase that people keep mentioning to me is often attributed to Mao: “The masses have sharp eyes.”
Countering the official explanation on the necessity of the constitutional move to align the presidency with Xi’s two more powerful posts – heads of the party and the military – that have no term limits, many have asked: “Why not impose term limits on the other two positions instead?”
With the amendment set to be rubber-stamped Sunday, everyone in China knows where Xi is headed, but few seem sure where China is going in the long haul.
