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Spoiler alert: Xi unlikely to lose term limit vote

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/overseas/03/09/chinpres.jpg"/><figcaption>Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks as China&#x27;s new Politburo Standing Committee members meet with the press at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China October 25, 2017. <em>Reuters</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>BEIJING, China - Public pressure, heated debate and a nail-biting vote: Don&#x27;t expect any of that when Chinese legislators cast historic ballots on lifting presidential term limits on Sunday.</p><p>The rubber-stamp National People&#x27;s Congress has never voted against anything the Communist Party has imposed on the legislature in its half-century of existence.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/02/26/18/emperor-xi-china-gambles-on-return-to-lifetime-rule">&#x27;Emperor Xi&#x27;? -- China gambles on return to lifetime rule</a></li>	<li><a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/02/27/18/china-drowns-out-critics-of-lifetime-xi-presidency">China drowns out critics of lifetime Xi presidency</a></li></ul><p>President Xi Jinping is thus all but certain to secure a path toward ruling the world&#x27;s second largest economy for life, but any legislator who may be secretly unhappy with the diktat has ways to discreetly express disapproval.</p><p>Experts explain to AFP how the historic vote might go down:</p><div><strong>How does the secretive process unfold?</strong></div><p>The nearly 3,000 legislators of the National People&#x27;s Congress include everyone from local party cadres to billionaires such as Tencent CEO Pony Ma. </p><p>But they fill a mostly ceremonial role. The real decisions are made by the Communist Party months in advance.</p><p>The term limit proposal was kept secret until it was revealed in a state media report on February 25, a week before the legislature&#x27;s opening session.</p><p>The party later disclosed that Xi had presided over a meeting of the Politburo in September during which the leadership decided to revise the constitution.</p><p>The party said it then sought proposals and opinions, culminating in a decision in late January to introduce constitutional amendments at the NPC.</p><p>In addition to abolishing presidential term limits, the amendments include the rollout of a national anti-graft body, a larger role for the Communist Party and the addition of Xi&#x27;s eponymous political philosophy: &quot;Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.&quot;</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/10/30/17/chinese-universities-start-xi-thought-institutes">Chinese universities start &#x27;Xi Thought&#x27; institutes</a></li></ul><div><strong>How do they vote?</strong></div><p>Delegates will convene for a plenary meeting on Sunday afternoon. Ballots will be distributed and each delegate will mark one of the following options: for, against or abstain. </p><p>They will then slip their votes in ballot boxes, and counting will begin. The proposal will be approved if at least two-thirds of the delegates vote in favour of the draft amendment.</p><p>&quot;The convention is to vote on the amendment as a whole so there won&#x27;t be a separate vote on the term limit,&quot; said Wei Changhao, editor of the National People&#x27;s Congress Observer.</p><div><strong>Protest votes?</strong></div><p>When Xi was elected president in 2013, he received 2,952 votes, with one against and three abstentions -- a 99.86 percent approval rating.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2017/news/10/20/xi-jinping-2017.jpg"/><figcaption>A visitor watches a video showing Chinese President Xi Jinping at a military meeting during an exhibition displaying China&#x27;s achievements for the past five years. <em>Reuters</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Since the NPC&#x27;s founding in 1954, it has never voted down a proposal. But analysts say delegates could abstain, since the voting is supposed to be anonymous -- at least officially.</p><p>&quot;A significant number of &#x27;no&#x27; votes or even abstentions would be a gasp-worthy event. Failure to reach the needed two-thirds majority would be faint-worthy,&quot; said Margaret Lewis, a law professor at Seton Hall University in New York.</p><p>Legislators have cast negative ballots in the past.</p><p>In 2013, some 500 voted against the budget. During Jiang Zemin&#x27;s presidency, around a third had voted against a report on the prosecutor&#x27;s office, according to Jean-Pierre Cabestan, China politics specialist at Hong Kong Baptist University.</p><p>But Ling Li, fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, said there is no suspense.</p><p>&quot;If we started to doubt it, that would mean the regime had changed,&quot; Li said.</p><div><strong>jch/lth/amu</strong></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>BEIJING, China - Public pressure, heated debate and a nail-biting vote: Don't expect any of that when Chinese legislators cast historic ballots on lifting presidential term limits on Sunday.</p>

BEIJING, China - Public pressure, heated debate and a nail-biting vote: Don't expect any of that when Chinese legislators cast historic ballots on lifting presidential term limits on Sunday.