China's ruling Communist Party is seeking to remove a restriction on the president serving 10 years, paving the way for Xi Jinping to remain in office beyond 2023 and perhaps for life.

The official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday that the Party had proposed to "remove the expression" that the president and vice-president “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms” from the country’s constitution.

The move would set in motion a more authoritarian future for China under Mr Xi, and is being described by experts as confirmation that Beijing has no interest in further opening up or delivering real democracy.

Steven Tsang, the director of the China Institute at SOAS, University of London told The Telegraph: "Democratization was never on the agenda under the Communist Party, which is a consultative Leninist system, one that fundamentally rejects liberal democracy, despite its claim that China is democratic ‘with Chinese characteristics’.

"It should now be so obvious that anyone who still cannot see it must be politically blind."

Mr Xi had already cemented his position as the country's strongest leader since Mao Tse-tung at last October's 19th Party Congress, when he began his second term as Chinese leader.