Term Limits Abolished — A Path to Indefinite Rule

China's National People's Congress voted 2,958 to 2 (with 3 abstentions) to remove the constitutional two-term limit on the presidency, a safeguard introduced after Mao Zedong's decades of one-man rule specifically to prevent its recurrence. The change enabled Xi Jinping to secure an unprecedented third term in 2023 and removed any formal mechanism for peaceful, scheduled leadership transition.

Xi Jinping — Chinese Communist Party

In power 2012–present