The announcement that the Chinese Communist Party intends to drop a two-term limit on the presidency is the latest sign that Xi Jinping is moving to strengthen the authority of the government and his position atop it. By upending a model of collective leadership that was put in place after the excesses of one-man rule and the power struggles that followed the deaths of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, President Xi has shown a determination to rewrite the rule book but also to reimpose older norms of a strong single leader ruling China. The prospect that he will rule for years to come has raised concerns about oppression at home and potential truculence abroad.
