Xi balances Taiwan, economic woes and a third term

Having presided over a grand celebration of the party’s centenary and suppressed mass Covid outbreaks last year, President Xi Jinping told his countrymen and women in his 2022 New Year address that Chin a was “making confident strides on the path toward the great rejuvenation”.

But so far, the Year of the Tiger has been full of stumbling blocks. First, the draconian Covid lockdowns in Xi’an and Shanghai, the commercial capital, sparked outcry and disrupted global supply chains. Then the economy showed