World Braces for More Rule-Bending by China’s Xi
- China under Xi has reassured support for Western institutions
- Communist Party seeking to break norms on presidential terms
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Xi Jinping’s decision to cast aside China’s presidential term limits is stoking concern he also intends to shun international rules on trade and finance, even as he champions them on the world stage.
The Communist Party’s bid to repeal the constitutional prohibition enacted after the turbulent Mao Zedong era -- allowing Xi to stay on indefinitely -- is only the latest domestic standard discarded by the president. Since coming to power in 2012, he’s jailed once-untouchable retirees of the country’s top political body, declined to name a successor and created a series of party panels to take over government policy making.