ABSTRACT
Editors' Introduction: In this essay, Yan expounds on the deliberations of the Fifth Plenum of the Eleventh CCP Central Committee on abolishing life tenure (the failure of the CCP to establish a fixed term of office for party and state officials). He provides the historical background to the phenomena of life tenure and points to the inevitable corruption such a system creates. In the concluding sentence he notes that the abolition of life tenure will not solve all problems.
