Xi Jinping looked relaxed as China’s legislators cast their votes in large red ballot boxes at a carefully stage-managed ceremony in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Sunday. He had good reason to be. Shanghai | Xi Jinping looked relaxed as China’s legislators cast their votes in large red ballot boxes at a carefully stage-managed ceremony in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Sunday. He had good reason to be.
There were only two ‘‘no’’ votes out of the nearly 3000 legislators representing every region of greater China who backed changes to the country’s constitution that effectively give Mr Xi the power to remain president indefinitely. Three others abstained, while 2963 delegates from China’s rubberstamp parliament voted in favour.
The ballot, a departure of the usual voting system of raising hands or pressing a button, was secret so the identities of the dissenters are not known and probably never will be. Journalists were ushered out of the room while delegates were filling in the ballot papers, but allowed back in to witness them casting their vote.
There were several unsubstantiated theories circulating about the vote on Monday. Some observers believe it is better to have a handful of dissenters to create the impression that the vote is free. Some of the more cynical academics studying China question whether the official results were real at all. Either way, it was clear long before Sunday that the move already had near-unanimous support from the National People’s Congress (NPC).
Mr Xi’s anti-corruption campaign, which has removed many of his political opponents, along with a high-tech surveillance and censorship regime, means few dare question the president’s authority. Now that he has the authority to rule for life, something no other Chinese leader has had since Mao Zedong, the question is what does he plan to do with all this power? The president has two main challenges.
‘‘He needs to make sure the economy remains strong and is stable. On the other hand, he needs to control public dissatisfaction,’’ Yang Zhaohui, a political scientist at Peking University, told The Australian Financial Review on Monday.
‘‘He wants to realise the great rejuvenation of China,’’ he said.
‘‘Xi is a very red person with a strong attachment to the party. In Xi’s mind, China can only be ruled by the Communist Party. What he has done is make sure the Communist Party is the dominant party that can rule China.’’
While most of the attention over the past fortnight has been on the abolition of presidential term limits, the 21 constitutional changes are ultimately designed to strengthen the Communist Party’s absolute power in China and remove any doubt the party is above the state. ‘‘Xi Jinping Thought’’ was also voted into the constitution, which is another tool for strengthening the rule of the party.
Mr Xi’s vision for the next five years, outlined at the Communist Party’s Congress in October, is unchanged as a result of Sunday’s vote.
He has promised to eliminate poverty, tackle pollution, address financial risk and elevate China’s role in global affairs.
How he administers this plan should become clearer later this week when the party is expected to announce the merger of some key state agencies and regulatory bodies, along with a new leadership line-up.
The dissent on the country’s social media platforms immediately after the state-run news agency reported the proposed changes two weeks ago has all but disappeared. This is largely due to the effectiveness of China’s censors, although even members of private WeChat groups previously critical of the move had gone quiet on Monday. That is not to say the dissent is not there.
Some academics say the elderly in China are among the most vocal opponents of the changes, although mostly in private.
This is most obvious if you listen to a group of retired professionals as they get together for their daily morning work or tai chi exercises.
Meanwhile, the low turnout in a key Hong Kong byelection on Sunday was a blow for the territory’s pro-democracy movement, which lost two seats in the local parliament. In a result that contrasted with the 2014 street protests that shut down parts of Hong Kong, the outcome was a signal of dwindling appetite in the former British colony for a showdown with Beijing.
‘‘The problem is Beijing doesn’t care one way or the other what the outcome is,’’ Willy Lam, adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Centre for China Studies, said.
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