In modern China, the leadership succession has often been disorderly, with rivals purged or killed. Deng Xiaoping tried to make it orderly by introducing mandatory retirement. The country’s constitution says the president “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms”. This provision is now being dismantled. On February 25th the Communist party’s central committee (of 205 top officials) said it had ​voted to remove term limits for the president and vice-president. The proposal will be approved imminently at a round of political gatherings. The central committee is holding a special meeting this week. Then, on March 5th, the rubber-stamp parliament starts its annual session. Xi Jinping, China’s president, is already the “core” of the party’s leadership. He has recently taken to having himself referred to by a Maoist term for leader. Any thought that he will step down when his second term ends (as his two predecessors did) looks implausible.