Xi could rule China for decades, says US Pacific commander

China's removal of presidential term limits could see leader Xi Jinping stay in power for decades, the commander of US forces in the Pacific said today, viewing it as a harbinger of the authoritarian nation's direction and the strategic threat it poses to America.

Adm Harry Harris voiced concern at a congressional hearing over the constitutional change endorsed by China's rubber-stamp parliament, saying it indicated the kind of country it's becoming. He adopted a tougher stance than the White House, which has declined to weigh in on the issue.

Harris, who is President Donald Trump's nominee to become ambassador to Australia, said it was possible that Xi could still be president when China marks the centennial of communist party rule in 2049.

"China has taken advantage of our openness," Harris told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Our hope in the past has been that if we bring china into organisations like the World Trade Organization and include China in our military exercises and the like, and that somehow China will become like us."
His comments of Xi's political future were notably tougher than the White House, which said this week that the removal of term presidential limits is China's business. Trump has even quipped, "Maybe we'll give that a shot someday."