Xi as Prez for life: As China gets assertive, India must focus on reforms

When China’s National People’s Congress – the rough equivalent of India’s Lok Sabha, but toothless - meets in the coming week it has to deal with a proposal by the ruling Communist Party of China to amend the state constitution to remove term limits for the President of the state. Coming from where it does, this is pretty much a direct order to the NPC to remove the term limits.

Removing term limits for the President, imposed in 1982, is a roundabout way of saying that the norm of two terms for the CPC General Secretary – Xi’s more powerful avatar – too, is not set in stone.

Indeed, term limits were imposed in the first place to signal to the Party that no leader should be able to continue indefinitely in power as Mao had much to the detriment of China and its people. Now, Xi appears to be seeking the removal of term limits with the opposite message – that China requires a strong leader capable of cleaning up corruption, modernizing the military, stabilizing the economy and standing up to aggressive neighbours and especially, to the United States.

Democracy without dignity: A Confucian critique of Donald Trump

The events of recent weeks have marked the point of absolute contrast between the world’s two most important countries and their leaders.

In China, President Xi Jinping has consolidated his power throughout the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), beginning with the bravura performance of a three-and-a-half hour opening speech, during which he sipped on not a drop of water.

By the end of the Congress, he was confirmed in his position for another five years, his supporters were elected to key government positions and his thinking was established as part of the CPC’s ruling doctrine for decades to come.

On the other side of the Pacific, witness the continuing omni-shambles of the Trump administration, now officially embroiled in a criminal investigation as it seemingly stumbles from scandal to scandal, one tweet at a time:
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Village near Doklam evacuated, India thickens Sikkim-Tibet border presence

Although army planners are not expecting a Chinese attack on the disputed Doklam bowl, where some 150 Indian soldiers have been in an eyeball-to-eyeball face-off against some 40 Chinese border guards since June, the army is taking no chances.

Villagers in Nathang, a border village 10-12 kilometres as the crow flies from Doklam, have been asked to evacuate their homes and move elsewhere. Nathang is overlooked directly by mountain features at Doklam, like Gyemochen, which China claims as the disputed India-China-Bhutan tri-junction.

Another Indian village nearby, Kuppup, is significantly closer to the border. But it is shielded from the Doklam area by high mountains that Indian troops occupy.

Army spokespersons deny the military has asked for Nathang to be evacuated. The civilian administration, however, is unlikely to have taken such a step unilaterally.

Simultaneously, two Indian mountain divisions –17 Division, headquartered in Gangtok; and 27 Division, based in Kalimpong – are discreetly moving troops to their battle stations on the Sikkim-Tibet border, including areas far removed from Dolkam.
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