Is China’s ‘president for life’ plan a knowing wink to Africa’s strongmen?

China’s Parliament has voted on controversial constitutional amendments. The changes will remove presidential terms limits, effectively allowing President Xi Jinping to rule beyond the end of his term in 2023, and possibly to remain president for life.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise because historically, Chinese rulers have been known to err on the side of autocracy. Even then, the proposed manipulation of the country’s constitution could put China on a regressive path to the bad old days of strongman rule.