President Xi warns: Don’t let pillow talk lead you to corruption

Monitoring Desk

BEIJING: China’s National People’s Congress on Sunday passed a measure lifting term limits for the nation’s president and vice president.

The change to the country’s Constitution allows the two leaders to serve at their posts indefinitely.

The move paves the way for China’s current President Xi Jinping to stay in office after 2023, when — under the old rules — his term was due to end.

Xi took office in March 2013.

President Xi Jinping has  also warned Chinese officials to shed “pillow talk” and ensure that they and their families refrain from indulging in corruption.

In his interaction with the deputies of the National People’s Congress (NPC), Xi said officials should strengthen self-control and not get tempted.

“Don’t let pillow talk lead you down to corruption. Don’t let your children engage in self-dealing using your name. Don’t be dragged into the ‘muddy water’ by people around you,” Xi was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

“Officials should never indulge themselves, never cross the line, never break the rule, and improve immunity to corruption,” he said.

Xi underlined a “clean and upright” political ecology and urged leading officials to uphold the rule of law. Leading officials should demonstrate leadership and set an example, he said.

Xi, regarded as the most powerful Chinese leader in recent years, carried out an extensive anti-graft campaign in the last five years in which over 1.5 million officials, including 101 ministerial level officials and top generals of the military were punished.

In his interaction with deputies, Xi asked officials to uphold the rule of law, oppose the rule of man, hold in awe of the Constitution, and exercise their duty within the boundaries of the Constitution and laws.

Leading officials should also promote core socialist values and prevent relapse of negative elements in traditional values, he said. The officials should uphold the political virtue, public virtue, individual virtue by refraining from corruption.

He warned that an official should keep both himself and the whole family “clean”.