As China’s Communist Party prepares to repeal term limits and let President Xi Jinping rule beyond 2023, commentators have taken to social media to lampoon and laud the move.
One post over the weekend depicted Winnie the Pooh -- a stand-in for the leader -- embracing a giant pot of honey with his eyes rapturously closed. “Find the thing you love and never let go,” went the viral re-post of an image put up by Disney in 2013 on Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-like service. Others chose a different route, circulating a 2014 party-approved article about late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping with the headline: “The last thing I will be good for is setting up a system for retirement.”
Chinese people dissatisfied with party machinations have always adopted circuitous means to voice their displeasure online, from employing images of Pooh to popularizing the term “grass mud horse” as a slur against the government (it sounds like a particularly venomous curse when spoken). They came out in force again Sunday, when the decision-making Central Committee announced it will abolish a constitutional provision barring the head of state from serving more than two consecutive terms. That removes the only formal barrier to Xi, who is also commander-in-chief of the military, staying in power indefinitely.
The English-language version of China’s official Xinhua News Agency was the first to announce the term-limits change Sunday. Subsequent Chinese-language reports in state-run media mentioned the proposal as part of a series of planned amendments. As of Monday, the 2013 Pooh posting wasn’t visible on Disney’s Weibo feed. The company declined to comment.Weibo censors have swung into action and by Monday, search terms such as “third consecutive term” were no longer shown. Other terms that don’t show results include “Emperor Xi” and “to live forever and never grow old.”
Not all comments were critical of the move, with some highlighting the stability it provides in a time of uncertainty.
“My personal view is that a leader who is tough, visionary, daring to rectify errors, and leading the country forward is beneficial. I have no problem that he stays on,” Weibo user @Lingchenjue9 wrote.
One online wit said his or her mother had always insisted they get married during Xi’s term of office. “Now I can relax.”
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--With assistance from Gao Yuan Lulu Yilun Chen and Dandan Li
To contact the reporter on this story: Edwin Chan in Hong Kong at echan273@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Brendan Scott
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