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According to this article:

China has approved the removal of the two-term limit on the presidency, effectively allowing Xi Jinping to remain in power for life.

I'd like to know if there is a mechanism in China's Constitution that allows the removal of the president from office. If yes, under what conditions?

James K
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    China's Constitution is a very different thing than the America's Constitution. They may have some of the same phrases, but that's just not how China works to begin with. Check out the Democracy Index. The US is classified as 25th, a Flawed Democracy, while China is 153rd, an Authoritarian. – Nelson Jan 25 '21 at 02:51
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    To me it seems like the most obvious way to get rid of him would be not to reelect him - they removed the term limit, they didn't abolish presidential elections. – Nobody Jan 25 '21 at 15:29
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    @Nobody Since the government also controls the media and censors the Internet, it can be difficult for a campaign to unseat the President to gain traction. – Barmar Jan 25 '21 at 15:54
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    And in authoritarian regimes, elections tend to be just for show. – Barmar Jan 25 '21 at 15:54
  • @Barmar Yes, well, and now imagine how much more difficult it would be to use a non-standard way to get rid of a president mid-term. – Nobody Jan 25 '21 at 16:17
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    @Nobody A general quality of authoritarian regimes is that even though they may have laws that appear democratic, in practice the people are not able to exercise these powers. And the irony is that they often put "Democratic" in the official country name. A key word in the article is "effectively". – Barmar Jan 25 '21 at 16:24
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    @Barmar 'Yes, well, and now imagine how much more difficult it would be to use a non-standard way to get rid of a president mid-term.' That's what I answered to your last comment, and it also perfectly applies to this next one. Why do you believe it would be easier to remove the president by an usa-impeachment-like procedure than during a regular election? – Nobody Jan 25 '21 at 17:13
  • @Nobody I never said it would be easier. I'm saying that it's hard to remove the president by any means. The article is correct that he can remain president as long as he wants. – Barmar Jan 25 '21 at 17:19
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    @Nelson I’m surprised by some of those rankings, given that the U.K. has a monarch who can veto any law, and we have an unelected section of parliament... is the U.K. really more democratic than the US? – Tim Jan 25 '21 at 20:26
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    @Tim On the other hand, the US has pretty bad disproportional representation in the Senate and Electoral College, a lot of extreme gerrymandering and various laws aimed at suppressing votes. The problem with indexes like these is that you can come with different orderings depending on how you weigh various factors like these and the ones you mentioned. At best they're just useful for things like pointing out that the Peoples' Republic of China isn't remotely close to being a democracy and so it's constitution doesn't really mean much. – Ross Ridge Jan 25 '21 at 21:16
  • @Tim The monarch's power of veto is symbolic only and not actually used in reality. It's true that we have an unelected house, but with the abolition of hereditary peers they are at least appointed by an elected government, and the HoL in any case only has the power to delay law, not block. We mix our legistlature and executive, but we have a strongly independent judiciary (compared to the USA) which is a very important aspect of a democracy. It's also far more difficult in the UK than the USA to influence a politician's decisions by funding their campaign. – JBentley Jan 25 '21 at 22:01
  • @JBentley I’m not sure your first point is true - she has used it (or at least, similar powers) in the past: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Action_Against_Iraq_(Parliamentary_Approval)_Bill?wprov=sfti1 – Tim Jan 25 '21 at 22:03
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    @Tim The important words there are " The Queen, acting upon the advice of her government". There are many things which are symbolically done by the queen but are in reality done by the government. Also, the word "advice" here can be misleading. In this context advice means the government tells her what to do and she does it. It doesn't mean she takes it into account and makes up her own mind. – JBentley Jan 25 '21 at 22:04
  • @RossRidge Yeah, you can't take it too seriously when the rankings are close, but China isn't remotely a democracy, and its Constitution simply do not mean what you expect of a western Constitution. If the government doesn't like you enough, you will get arrested and disappear, notably Jack Ma the last couple months, and then suddenly appear out of nowhere speaking praises to the government. – Nelson Jan 26 '21 at 01:32

1 Answers1

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Yes, Article 63

Article 63

The National People’s Congress shall have the power to remove from office the following personnel:

(1) the president and the vice president of the People’s Republic of China;

...

So the annual NPC can remove the President, by simple majority vote.

https://www.basiclaw.gov.hk/en/basiclawtext/images/basiclaw_full_text_en.pdf

However, "President" is de facto a secondary role to the real position of leadership: General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission. In the PRC, if you lead the Communist party and the Army, you lead the country. (Case in point: Deng Xiaoping)

James K
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    Of course, you wouldn't want to be the one proposing an impeachment vote unless you were sure it was going to pass. I imagine that the Chinese president could do nasty things to whoever voted against them if they retained their position. – nick012000 Jan 25 '21 at 12:25
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    Depending on OP's intention, this answer could be defeated if there is something else that allows Xi to simply sidestep the process, e.g. if another article gives him the power to keep firing those who would lead such an impeachment inquiry, or similar lateral "solutions" to the problem of being impeached. – Flater Jan 25 '21 at 15:37
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    Many comments are assuming the Chinese president is the one with the most powers... It may be true now, but it is not necessarily true. Of all the titles Mr Xi holds, Presidency of the PRC is the least powerful one. – xngtng Jan 25 '21 at 20:04
  • That is a very good point, and one I will address. – James K Jan 25 '21 at 20:08
  • @nick012000 I think if one was in a position that one was reasonably sure the impeachment vote would if proposed pass, then one would be in a position to take power through other means. – emory Jan 25 '21 at 23:24
  • Without any exrta procedure and just 50,0001% ? Wild – Hobbamok Jan 26 '21 at 12:11
  • @AsteroidsWithWings uhm, yeah, no. Democracy as a concept is not that literally tied to a 50,01% margin. Nowhere. – Hobbamok Jan 26 '21 at 13:21
  • @Hobbamok Yeah okay that was rubbish wasn't it – Asteroids With Wings Jan 26 '21 at 13:24
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    @Hobbamok Technically the president doesn't hold much power. So probably nobody thought this is that important. But it has evolved in a way that the person who holds the most power always end up also becoming the president. – user23013 Jan 29 '21 at 08:22
  • "General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission." If you like maybe also comment in the answer on if the General Secretary of the Communist Party could theoretically be voted out of power and by whom. That would make this good answer probably even better. – NoDataDumpNoContribution Mar 12 '22 at 20:38