Xi Jinping will consolidate his power in the coming year

By James Miles

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is fond of weather-related and nautical metaphors. He often talks of fierce storms that could impede the country’s rise. In recent months, Mr Xi has warned officials to brace for “numerous major tests” amid “high winds, rough seas and daunting waves”. These are certainly testing times for the team he installed in late 2022 and early in 2023 to help him navigate the country’s growing economic, diplomatic and social challenges. Two prominent members of the team have already fallen. The coming year will not be plain sailing for Mr Xi’s other underlings.

The president might have been hoping to breathe a sigh of relief in 2023. His sweeping reshuffle of the top echelons of government—and, a few months earlier, of the Communist Party’s high command—had surrounded him with people he knew well and trusted. His abandonment late in 2022 of China’s draconian “zero-covid” approach to tackling the pandemic had led to a surge of deaths, but officials were confident that an economic rebound would help to buoy the public mood.