THE Chinese Communist Party’s central committee is expected to vote this week to abandon the current ban on an incumbent serving “no more than two consecutive terms” as state president or vice president.

The central committee, which opens a three-day session in Beijing tomorrow, will consider a recommendation from its politburo subcommittee to remove that clause, which could allow current President Xi Jinping to extend his presidency beyond 2023.

The committee is also likely to back a politburo proposal that the constitution should incorporate “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.”