China drowns out critics of lifetime Xi presidency

BEIJING, Feb 27 (AFP): China's propaganda machine kicked into overdrive Tuesday to defend the Communist Party's move to scrap term limits for President Xi Jinping as critics on social media again defied censorship attempts.

The country has shocked many observers by proposing a constitutional amendment to end the two-term limit for presidents, giving Xi a clear path to rule the world's second largest economy for life.

The rubber-stamp National People's Congress (NPC) is certain to endorse the move next week, meaning that Xi-already China's most powerful leader in decades-can stay as president beyond 2023.

Li Datong, a former editor at the state-run China Youth Daily, posted a draft letter urging legislators to vote against the move-which would abolish term limits set in 1982 under Deng Xiaoping to prevent a return to the decades of chaos under Mao Zedong.

"It was the highest and most effective legal restriction meant to prevent autocracy or putting individuals above the party and the state," said the letter. It was not sent to legislators but shared with hundreds of people in a private group on China's WeChat phone messaging app.

"Lifting the term limits of national leaders will be ridiculed by civilised nations all over the world and also sow the seeds of chaos for China," said the text posted on Monday.

WeChat users trying to share screenshots of the letter saw their posts blocked.

Censors have scrambled to delete all dissenting comments on social media - - even the word "disagree" is blocked-but users of the Twitter-like Weibo website kept speaking out Tuesday, two days after the party Central Committee announcement. "So pathetic, we have 1.3 billion people, no one can resist," wrote one user.

Another lamented the lack of political reform: "I once believed that I could see a president elected by one man, one vote in my lifetime."

Scores of terms have been blocked, according to a list of dozens of words compiled by US-based internet tracker China Digital Times-including "my emperor", "ascend the throne", "I oppose", "lifelong", and "Winnie the Pooh" -- the portly cartoon bear to which Xi has been compared.