The Communist Party of China's Central........>

CHINA: The Communist Party of China's Central Committee proposed to change the

term of Chinese president in the country's constitution, Xinhua News Agency

reported on Sunday. The ruling party's highest power organ announced publicly

today it wants to remove the expression that the President and Vice President

"shall serve no more than two consecutive terms," Xinhua said. 

***Comment: The announcement confirmed years of speculations that current

President Xi Jinping seeks to serve beyond his second five-year tenure that

would have ended by about 2023. The two five-year terms of China's official head

of state was written into the constitution in 1954 and has never been revised.

Previous paramount leaders such as Deng Xiaoping continued to exert de facto

ultimate power from behind the scene. The latest propose will almost certainly

be approved by China's rubberstamp parliament, the National People's Congress,

next month, given Xi unparalleled power to shape China for generations.