Xi to stay on, Wanda to get out, Tmall turns to F1 and more Milan misery

Here’s a summary of what you can find in my weekly China Digest for SportBusiness:

Official: Xi Jinping to stay on as President past 10-year limit

In China, everything is dominated by politics, which is why the main news of the week – that the ruling Communist Party has proposed removing from the country’s constitution the two-term limit for the President and Vice-President – is still extremely relevant for the sports industry. This change, which had long been rumored and is almost certain to be validated as early as next month, clears the way for Xi Jinping, already viewed as China’s most powerful leader for decades, to stay in power past 2022.

In some sense, this is good news: Xi is known to be a football fan – or is he? – so the country’s long-term soccer reforms plans now look more certain. But as the New Yorker writes:

“China is reentering a period in which the fortunes of a fifth of humanity hinge, to an extraordinary degree, on the visions, impulses, and insecurities of a solitary figure.”