# NPC amends the constitution to remove presidential term limits

Date: 2018

## The fact

On 11 March 2018 the National People’s Congress adopted a constitutional amendment that deleted the two-consecutive-term limit on the President and Vice-President of the People’s Republic of China. The same amendment wrote [Xi Jinping](/people/env-person-xi-jinping) Thought into the preamble.

## Context

The 19th Central Committee proposed the amendment. Xi chaired the Party process. NPC delegates voted 2,958 to 2 with three abstentions. The General Secretary and CMC chair already had no term limits; the presidency was aligned with those posts. He did not sit as every delegate. The State Council still implements statutes.

The General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, concurrently President of the People’s Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, can set the Politburo agenda, nominate the State Council leadership, and command the armed forces. He does not write UN General Assembly resolutions, OHCHR assessments, WHO emergency-use listings, or Hong Kong ordinances by himself.

## Evidence and sources

State Council of the PRC carries the official instrument or communique. BBC records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is [democratic-resilience](/drivers/democratic-resilience): removing the only remaining numerical term limit on the head of state reduces expected leadership rotation. It is not a finding that every later statute was thereby authorised.

## What is established and what is not

Established: an 11 March 2018 NPC amendment deleting the two-term presidential limit, contemporaneously recorded by the State Council and by independent reporting.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

The NPC voted. He did not sit as every delegate.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies NPC amends the constitution to remove presidential term limits, not a later speech about NPC amends the constitution to remove presidential term limits.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. NPC amends the constitution to remove presidential term limits on 2018-03-11 is not a licence to treat every later State Council of the PRC communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor decree exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average NPC amends the constitution to remove presidential term limits into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He chaired the Party proposal. The NPC voted. He did not sit as every delegate. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. The National People’s Congress, the State Council, provincial governments, the People’s Liberation Army, Hong Kong’s executive, and foreign counterparties share specific files. Allegation is not a completed judgment. An OHCHR assessment is not a criminal conviction. A white paper is not a census. A UN pledge is not a delivered emissions path.

## People

- Xi Jinping: https://factrail.ai/people/xi-jinping

## Drivers

- Democratic Resilience: https://factrail.ai/drivers/democratic-resilience

## Sources

- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-43361276
- https://english.www.gov.cn/news/top_news/2018/03/11/content_281476076406348.htm

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/cn-npc-term-limits-2018