The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, has succeeded in abolishing presidential term limits, a momentous political coup that paves the way for him to stay in power for years to come.

Nearly 3,000 members of China’s National People’s Congress voted the highly controversial constitutional amendment through during a Sunday afternoon session at the Great Hall of the People – an imposing Mao-era theatre on the western fringe of Tiananmen Square.

Applause rippled through the auditorium as Xi cast his vote, using two hands to place a salmon-coloured ballot into a bright red box at 3.24pm. A further 2,957 ballots were cast in favour of the change while three delegates abstained and two voted against, a small hint of the outrage the move has caused in some liberal circles.

The identifies of the five dissenters is – and will almost certainly remain – a mystery.

“I can now announce that the proposals to amend the constitution of the People’s Republic of China has passed,” an announcer proclaimed, sparking a 20-second burst of applause.

Two other amendments designed to shore up Xi’s supremacy were also approved through the same vote: the addition of a political philosophy called Xi Jinping Thought to the constitution, and the creation of politically driven “supervisory commissions” tasked with investigating party members and civil servants.

The parliament’s chairman, Zhang Dejiang, told delegates it was time to get behind Xi’s push to make China great again.

“The great dream of national rejuvenation encourages us to keep striving; the great era inspires us to forge ahead,” Zhang said.

“Let us hold high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, thoroughly study and apply Xi Jinping Thought … and realise the Chinese Dream.”

Yuan Weixia, a delegate from Hubei province, said she was excited to be part of such a pivotal moment in Chinese history and had no hesitation in backing her leader.

“Xi has shown us the right direction in development and if you have found the right path why change?” she said before placing her ballot into one of 28 boxes in the Great Hall. “We need a strong leadership which can keep leading us forwards.”

“It’s what we need to keep advancing in the right direction,” agreed Mayisifu, a delegate from the Hui minority from Qinghai province.

For Xi, who is now widely considered China’s most dominant leader since Mao Zedong, Sunday’s vote represents a landmark victory in his battle for complete command of the world’s number two economy.

Opponents, however, call the decision to scrap the two-term limit – introduced in 1982 to prevent a repeat of the horrors of the Mao era – a calamity that risks plunging China into a new age of political turbulence and one-man dictatorship.

“This could destroy China and the Chinese people. So I cannot stay silent. I have to let them know that there are people against it, and to do so publicly,” protested Li Datong, a retired newspaper editor who became the face of liberal opposition to Xi’s power grab when he published a combative open letter attacking the move.

Li said he felt livid that with Sunday’s vote “more than 2,000 deputies were acting like puppets and leading us back to the Mao era”. “What about holding referendum? Dare they hold a referendum? Of course they don’t,” he said. “I’m sorry, when I think about this, I can’t stop getting angry, and saying bad words.”

The political commentator Cary Huang called Xi’s attempt to become China’s “de facto monarch” possibly the most controversial political development of modern Chinese history.

“History has shown that many political leaders who sought lifelong service have not managed to realise their vision,” Huang warned in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post. “Some have been deposed … others have been assassinated by political enemies”.

“The stakes could not be any higher; renewed hostility among political rivals and the repression of political dissent puts China at risk of repeating the tragedies of the Mao era,” Huang added.

Elizabeth Economy, the author of a forthcoming book about Xi called The Third Revolution, said Xi’s bid to grab “all the levers of power” reflected his conviction that only he could put China back at the centre of global affairs.

“The greatest risk for him is that he makes himself a lightning rod. So if the Chinese economy slows significantly, or if there is some major disaster or problem, then he has basically assumed responsibility for whatever happens in the country,” said Economy, the director for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Economy said that with his relentless anti-corruption campaign and purges, Xi had created “some pretty significant pockets of discontent among powerful players”.

According to one recent count, since taking power in 2012 Xi has used an anti-corruption campaign to bring down a succession of heavyweight rivals including more than 100 generals and admirals and six top party figures who were accused of plotting a coup.

“If somehow there is a weakness to be found, I think that his enemies will circle and go in for the kill. That’s the greatest danger to him at this point,” Economy said.

For world leaders Economy said she could see at least one potential upside to Xi’s longevity which would allow them to predict more clearly “the opportunities and threats they would face when dealing with China”.

“There is no mystery as to the direction in which he wants to take the country.”

For those who opposed Xi and his crackdown on human rights and dissent it boded ill, she said. “I think it’s very bleak, the outlook politically.”

Additional reporting by Wang Xueying

Before heading to bed before the Fourth of July holiday, Christopher Flowers checked the weather while staying at a friend’s house along the Guadalupe River. Nothing in the forecast alarmed him.

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Hours later, he was rushing to safety: he woke up in darkness to electrical sockets popping and ankle-deep water. Quickly, his family scrambled nine people into the attic. Phones buzzed with alerts, Flowers recalled on Saturday, but he did not remember when the chaos started.

“What they need they need is some kind of external system, like a tornado warning that tells people to get out now,” Flowers, 44, said.

The destructive fast-moving waters that began before sunrise on Friday in the Texas Hill Country killed at least 43 people in Kerr county, authorities said on Saturday. At least eight people died in nearby counties and an unknown number of people remained missing. Those still unaccounted for included 27 girls from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along a river in Kerr county where most of the dead were recovered.

But as authorities launch one of the largest search-and-rescue efforts in recent Texas history, they have come under intensifying scrutiny over preparations and why residents and youth summer camps that are dotted along the river were not alerted sooner or told to evacuate.

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The National Weather Service sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies – a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.

New rules on certain Communist Party organs suggest China’s ruling party is aiming to standardise its decision-making process and that President Xi Jinping might be delegating more of his power, according to observers.

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One analyst said the move could hint at his plan for succession.

The 24-member Politburo , the party’s top echelon, on Monday reviewed new rules that would apply to the various “party coordinative institutes” – organisations aimed at coordinating cross-agency policies in a specific area.

Specifically, these refer to party “central commissions” and “party leading groups”, many of which were either founded or given expanded power during Xi’s tenure.

The new regulations aim to standardise the policy coordination and review process at the top, according to state news agency Xinhua.

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According to Xinhua, the Politburo meeting noted that these organs should focus on “planning, discussing and checking on major matters”.

BEIJING — Wang Qishan, the formidable Chinese politician who oversaw President Xi Jinping’s withering campaign against corruption, has been appointed to the national legislature, official news outlets said on Monday. The announcement added to signs that Mr. Wang, who retired from top Communist Party posts last year, could return to public office as a powerful ally of Mr. Xi.

Mr. Wang, 69, previously ran the Communist Party’s anticorruption agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, turning it into a fearsome enforcer of loyalty to Mr. Xi. But he stepped down from that and other leadership positions at a party congress in October, following an unspoken retirement rule for high-ranking Chinese politicians.

But there has been speculation ever since then that Mr. Xi could see to it that Mr. Wang remained a powerful player in China’s political leadership. The reports on Monday of Mr. Wang’s appointment to the party-controlled legislature, the National People’s Congress, are the clearest sign yet that he will remain in public life.

Official news outlets reported that Mr. Wang had been chosen as a deputy to the congress for Hunan, a province in southern China. But the official reports gave no other clues about his future.

Executive vice-premier Han Zheng has become the only retiring member of the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) to retain a seat in the national legislature in a possible sign that he is in line to become vice-president.

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Han, who also stepped down from the ruling Communist Party ’s Central Committee in October, was selected as a deputy to the 14th National People’s Congress on Wednesday, at Shandong’s provincial people’s congress.

A count by the South China Morning Post shows that all the regional people’s congresses have selected their delegates for March’s meeting of the legislature and no other retiring PSBC members retained their seats.

Key party leaders – including President Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, who is expected to be the next premier, and other serving Politburo members – have all been reelected as deputies, so they will be appointed to various senior state roles in March.

According to past norms, members of the PSBC who retire from their party roles do not keep their seats in the legislature unless they are to be given a new job.

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