Should term limit for China's presidency remain the same, be extended, or eliminated?

Dizasta1

Dizasta1

Senior Member
Viktor Jav said:
Yeah, but the Malaysian Constitution does not have a clause stipulating that the head of state can only serve a certain period of time. And, on a personal note trust me, Mahatir ain't all chuckles and sunshine/
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No one said the former Malay PM was all sparkles and sunshine, but when the time came, he handed over power to the one who legitimately was chosen by the people of Malaysia.

As for the Chinese constitution stating max term of ruling head of state. Well with time, circumstances change and with it, so should the constitution. We have seen the rise of Xi Jinping's enforcement of anti-corruption. If that means the eradication of corruption that plagues the government of China, then let the constitution be changed so that corruption is eliminated. Because it is due to corruption so many countries have suffered and have been an impediment to their progress.
 
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antiterror13

Brigadier
Dizasta1 said:
No one said the former Malay PM was all sparkles and sunshine, but when the time came, he handed over power to the one who legitimately was chosen by the people of Malaysia.

As for the Chinese constitution stating max term of ruling head of state. Well with time, circumstances change and with it, so should the constitution. We have seen the rise of Xi Jinping's enforcement of anti-corruption. If that means the eradication of corruption that plagues the government of China, then let the constitution be changed so that corruption is eliminated. Because it is due to corruption so many countries have suffered and have been an impediment to their progress.
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Just look at Singapore ... under Lee Kuan Yew (LKY), Singapore become one of the best countries in the world, super efficient and clean govt and super strong economically and military .. and do you know what he served for almost 32 years as a PM (1959 to 1990) and then still served as Senior Minister for 15 years (1990 to 2004) and Minister Mentor for 7 years (2004-2011). His son now has been serving as PM for more than 13 years (since 2004)
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siegecrossbow

siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
AssassinsMace said:
Well people are reacting to a Western spin. It shouldn't be surprising that a communist government can change tradition laws like they do in Western democracies. But somehow Western democracies can change laws. Most people outside China probably never knew there were term limits for a Chinese leader. It's a dog whistle story.
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If you go by the western spin everybody is screwed.
 
manqiangrexue

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
siegecrossbow said:
Many enlightened rulers are senile and ineffectual in their old age, for instance.
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This is very important, since no man can escape declining cognitive abilities with age. Resistance to new methods or change is also characteristic of the elderly. Biologically, a leader who is susceptible to illness or even natural death creates instability within the country. So I think in this case, age limit makes more sense than term limit.

Although I will admit that due to biological differences between different individuals, that is also quite imperfect. Xi looks like he's in his mid-late 50's to me and probably has a mind just as sharp.
 
supercat

supercat

Major
I think this is a very important topic and merits its own thread.

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What especially worrisome is that the purposed constitutional change is to eliminated the term limit completely instead of merely extending the term limit. I'm afraid that putting the fate of a country into the hands of one man is never a good thing, no matter how benevolent that person is for the time being.
 
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antiterror13

Brigadier
manqiangrexue said:
This is very important, since no man can escape declining cognitive abilities with age. Resistance to new methods or change is also characteristic of the elderly. Biologically, a leader who is susceptible to illness or even natural death creates instability within the country. So I think in this case, age limit makes more sense than term limit.

Although I will admit that due to biological differences between different individuals, that is also quite imperfect. Xi looks like he's in his mid-late 50's to me and probably has a mind just as sharp.
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He does look like in mid 50s, but actually he is 64 years old. So he will be 69 when his 2nd term completed .. still very much relatively "young" to complete another 5 year term. I agree to limit the age, perhaps 80?

FYI .. Trump is 71 years old man .. and will be 78 when he finished his 2nd term in 2024 ;) .. and I am sure he will be still healthy and energetic and still twitting every night at that time
 
manqiangrexue

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
antiterror13 said:
He does look like in mid 50s, but actually he is 64 years old. So he will be 69 when his 2nd term completed .. still very much relatively "young" to complete another 5 year term. I agree to limit the age, perhaps 80?

FYI .. Trump is 71 years old man .. and will be 78 when he finished his 2nd term in 2024 ;) .. and I am sure he will be still healthy and energetic and still twitting every night at that time
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That's why the age limit is difficult too. People age at different rates, both mentally and physically. If I just looked at Trump, I'd say he's just under 80 but he's actually 71. If you see his interviews from decades ago, he was actually cool and somewhat charming when he was young; at 71, he's turned into a hateful crass buzzard, typical angry old racist. By that, I'd say cap it at 70 to keep people like him away from the presidency. But then, you look at Xi, who looks 56 when he's 65 and you feel like the age limit should be something like 80 since he'd be 69 by the end of his second term and he looks like he can do 2 more no problem (he might feel more like just over 70 by then). So age limit is a difficult thing to use as well, though I think it's better than term limit, which can essential force a great and experienced leader off for no reason whatsoever. We'll have to see what Xi looks like by 2023 though... maybe he'll show some depreciation in these 5 years. I certainly hope not.
 
B

B.I.B.

Captain
AssassinsMace said:
Well people are reacting to a Western spin. It shouldn't be surprising that a communist government can change tradition laws like they do in Western democracies. But somehow Western democracies can change laws. Most people outside China probably never knew there were term limits for a Chinese leader. It's a dog whistle story.
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A little off the topic but FDR was elected for four terms.He justified his position by pointing out that that because there was so much turmoil and uncetainty in the world,it would be better to have some continuty in the White House.
 
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