Wang Xiangwei

China Briefing | Why China’s silence on Xi’s term limits move portends trouble

Forget the trade deficit – China’s trust deficit with the West threatens to do far more damage

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Why you can trust SCMP

President Xi Jinping addresses delegates at the opening of the 13th National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo: EPA

Wang Xiangwei

Published: 9:00am, 10 Mar 2018Updated: 1:56pm, 12 Mar 2018

“Urgent: Communist Party of China proposes change of constitution [regarding] Chinese president’s term”. In a fashion typical of news agencies, the English-language service of the state-run Xinhua dropped the bombshell announcement in the early afternoon of February 25, adding that the party leadership proposed to remove from the constitution the expression that “president and vice-president shall serve no more than two consecutive terms”.

The brief report in English came nearly two hours ahead of the release of the full report in Chinese of the proposed changes to the constitution.

Its two sentences were immediately picked up by overseas news outlets and went viral on social media, with speculation focusing upon whether the proposed change was clearing the way for President Xi Jinping to rule for life.

But Xinhua is not a typical news agency. Carrying an official ranking equivalent to a cabinet ministry, it serves as the most authoritative source of the party leadership and it is the designated platform through which important documents and speeches are released. This means it must make sure its reports are politically correct above all else.

It has since transpired that some senior editors at Xinhua are facing disciplinary action, apparently because they jumped the gun and released the report purely for the sake of its news value.

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The episode has not only illustrated the sensitivity of the proposed constitutional change, which will help Xi to tighten his grip on power.