Chinese intellectual Fan Liqin who openly criticised move to scrap term limits speaks out
‘I was making these points on behalf of some of us,’ says liberal thinker, whose 24-page article was put up at the Peking University campus this month
A liberal intellectual who openly criticised Beijing’s decision to remove the term limit on President Xi Jinping has spoken out for the first time since his article was put up on the campus of China’s top university earlier this month.
While the article was censored on the mainland, it has been circulating on Chinese social media for the past two weeks.
The controversial move to scrap the term limit and allow Xi to stay in power beyond 2023 – a change that was made to the constitution in March – sparked a huge backlash among China’s liberal thinkers, even though the ruling Communist Party insisted it was widely supported by the public.
Despite the heavy censorship, many of them have found ways to express their concerns and criticism.
But few went as far as Fan Liqin, who was educated at prestigious Peking University. His article – which was publicly displayed on the Beijing campus on May 4, a sensitive date marking a student-led political movement – sent shock waves through intellectual circles after he questioned the decision and warned against the danger of a cult of personality around the president and an over-concentration of power.
