美国国家公共电台 NPR China Proposes Lifting Presidential Term Limit

 

SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:

And now to China, where a proposal from the country's ruling party could have implications for years to come. Today, the Communist Party proposed scrapping¹ term limits for presidents. That would mean China's leader Xi Jinping may not retire after the standard 10 years in power. Or he might not retire at all. NPR's Anthony Kuhn has been following the story and joins us now. Hi, Anthony.

ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE²: Hi, Sarah.

MCCAMMON: So how long has China had term limits for its leaders, and why are they in place?

KUHN: Well, they haven't had the term limits for very long in the historical scheme of things. China's constitution has prescribed two five-year terms for president and vice³ president since 1982. And before that, Chinese leaders basically just ruled until they died - from, you know, centuries of emperors under imperial dynasties all the way up to China's late leader Deng Xiaoping, who ruled basically until his death in 1997. And so these limits are going to be taken out of the constitution. One thing to remember is that Xi Jinping is actually also head of the Communist Party and the military. And those two posts outrank the president, and they have no legal limits whatsoever⁴.

MCCAMMON: And what signs, if any, have there been that this was coming?

KUHN: Yeah. It was kind of expected. Over the past five years, Xi Jinping has been amassing⁵ power in his own hands. He's been knocking out his political rivals in an anti-corruption campaign. And last year, China declared a new era under Xi Jinping's leadership, and they wrote his official ideology⁶ into the constitution. And that's not something every leader can do. So it suggested that he was ending previous arrangements. And according to recent tradition, they should've designated Xi's successor last year. But there's still no sign of any heir apparent.

MCCAMMON: And how much of a sense are we getting of why China's leaders are moving in this direction?

KUHN: Well, this was announced in state media on Sunday. And there's no explanation yet. What Xi's supporters are saying is that these are special times, and they demanded some special arrangements. They say that Xi Jinping has an ambitious agenda ahead of him to reform the country's economy and politics. And he has a lot of vested bureaucratic⁷ interests to overcome. And this is going to require some extra time, and it may require extra continuity, which will make the country more stable. Now, these changes to the constitution will actually have to be approved at a session of China's parliament in March. But that parliament has never voted down any piece of legislation that the party in government has put before it. So it's basically seen as a done deal.

MCCAMMON: And finally, Anthony, how much concern are you hearing about this proposal?

KUHN: Well, discussion of it in China's state media is pretty heavily censored⁸ at the moment. But it's clear that people are worried because it runs counter to the trend of the past 40 years or so, which is basically China's reform era. And during that time, the problem of political succession has been seen as China's sort of Achilles heel. And leaders have tried to make the succession more institutionalized, more orderly and predictable. And term limits are a part of that. And so rolling this back really raises the specter of succession struggles and political instability.

MCCAMMON: That's NPR's Beijing correspondent Anthony Kuhn. Thanks so much.

KUHN: You're welcome.

1 scrapping   

刮，切除坯体余泥

参考例句：

• He was always scrapping at school. 他在学校总打架。
• These two dogs are always scrapping. 这两条狗总是打架。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 whatsoever   

adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么

参考例句：

• There's no reason whatsoever to turn down this suggestion.没有任何理由拒绝这个建议。
• All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,do ye even so to them.你想别人对你怎样，你就怎样对人。

5 amassing   

v.积累，积聚( amass的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The study of taxonomy must necessarily involve the amassing of an encyclopaedic knowledge of plants. 分类学研究一定要积累广博的植物知识。 来自辞典例句
• Build your trophy room while amassing awards and accolades. 建立您的奖杯积累奖项和荣誉。 来自互联网

6 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

7 bureaucratic   

adj.官僚的，繁文缛节的

参考例句：

• The sweat of labour washed away his bureaucratic airs.劳动的汗水冲掉了他身上的官气。
• In this company you have to go through complex bureaucratic procedures just to get a new pencil.在这个公司里即使是领一支新铅笔，也必须通过繁琐的手续。

8 censored   

受审查的，被删剪的

参考例句：

• The news reports had been heavily censored . 这些新闻报道已被大幅删剪。
• The military-backed government has heavily censored the news. 有军方撑腰的政府对新闻进行了严格审查。