BEIJING- In a rare public expression of dissent in China, a well-knownpolitical commentator and a prominent businesswoman have penned openletters urging lawmakers to reject a plan to rule china indefinitely.

Their impassioned statements on a popular messaging app were circulatedwidely after the ruling Communist Party announced a proposal on Sunday toamend the constitution to scrap term limits on the president and vicepresident.

In a statement on Monday on WeChat to Beijing’s members of China’srubber-stamp parliament, Li Datong, a former editor for the state-run *ChinaYouth Daily*, wrote that lifting term limits would “sow the seeds of chaos”.

“If there are no term limits on a country’s highest leader, then we arereturning to an imperial regime,” Li told *The Associated Press* onTuesday.

“My generation has lived through Mao. That era is over. How can we possiblygo back to it?”

Wang Ying, a businesswoman who has advocated government reforms, wrote onWeChat that the Communist Party’s proposal was “an outright betrayal” and“against the tides”.

“I know that you (the government) will dare to do anything,” she wrote.“And one ordinary person’s voice is certainly useless. But I am a Chinesecitizen, and I don’t plan on leaving. This is my motherland too!”

In a message that was swiftly deleted by censors, sociologist Li Yinhecalled the removal of term limits “unfeasible” and would “return China tothe era of Mao”.

Li added, however, that delegates to the National People’s Congress,China’s parliament, are likely to pass the amendment unanimously since“they aren’t really elected by the people, therefore they don’t representthe people in voting, but will vote according to the leadership’s design”.

An official at the information department of the Congress’ StandingCommittee said on Tuesday that he was not aware of the open letters.

While Xi, 64, is broadly popular in China for his economic stewardship,muscular foreign policy and emphasis on stability, it’s difficult todetermine how the move to end term limits has been received overall. FewChinese dare to speak out on political topics, even online, while the mediaare entirely state-controlled and public polling on sensitive issues isnonexistent.

The Congress is all but certain to pass the constitutional amendment whenit meets for its annual session early next month, at which it will grant Xia second five-year term and appoint new ministers and other governmentofficials.

Under the 1982 constitution, the president is limited to two five-yearterms in office, but Xi — already China’s most powerful leader since Mao —is seemingly convinced that he’s the only one who can realise his visionfor China and wants additional terms to see through his agenda of fightingcorruption, eliminating poverty and transforming China into a modernleading nation by midcentury.

A simple thirst for power is another possible motivation.

Government and party spokesmen have yet to offer any detailed explanationsof the reasoning behind the dropping of term limits. Nor is it clearwhether Xi will seek to remain president for life or will only stay on fora set number of additional terms.

“The fact that this proposal was possible means that Xi Jinping’s influenceis growing,” said Chen Jieren, a Beijing-based independent politicalscholar. “The party is recognising his achievements in fighting corruption.People have confidence in and respect for his resoluteness.”

But Chen added: “China is not Cuba. Through the past few decades, Chinesepeople have come to understand that no one should be in power for life.”

Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Monday that the proposal “wasmade in accordance with the new situation and the practice of upholding anddeveloping socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era”.

In a commentary on Tuesday, the official *China Daily* newspaper mentionedthe proposal to strip out language in the constitution limiting thepresident and vice president to two five-year terms, saying it was“necessitated by the need to perfect the party and the state’s leadershipsystem”.

While Chinese censors have moved swiftly to delete satirical onlinecommentary on the move, a range of opposition views continue to be shared. *TheGlobal Times*, a newspaper published by the Communist Party, said “outsideforces” were trying to challenge the party’s leadership. – Agencies