Xi’s Cadre Pension-Age Limit Makes No Sense
At 69, China’s Xi Jinping is about to embark on a third term. He should allow the Communist Party’s rank and file to also stay in their jobs for longer.
Rethinking the retirement age.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
Ageism permeates China’s elite politics. At this week’s twice-a-decade party congress, politicians stood in perfect rows, in perfectly pressed dark suits, sporting identical jet-black hair. Most of the 2,300 delegates were men well into their 50s, trying to look young.
President Xi Jinping, on the other hand, dared to let his hair go grey. He is a rule breaker after all. To secure a third term, he will have to brush aside an unwritten convention established two decades ago, that top politicians must be younger than 68 to be eligible for another five-year term. Xi is 69 years old.