While Xi (and the CCP) is under pressure, we must remember how formidable he has been as a politician and leader. He is a true believer and he has the personal strength and resilience, stemming from his childhood experiences (in Shanxi during the cultural revolution) to endure and emerge stronger post-COVID. He had earlier merged his personal narrative with that of nationalism, Confucianism, Maoism, and his dream of rejuvenation of China’s greatness. This has now hardened but remains emblematic, in that Xi has now emphasized not only the China Dream, but paired it with aggressive, Wolf Warrior diplomacy. Xi and the CCP cannot afford to look weak or to back down. The opposite of rejuvenation is humiliation. Xi is playing the long game, and will carry on with Made in China 2025, and the upcoming centennial in 1921, with the goal of making China not only resurgent, but dominant by 249. So it doesn’t really matter whether Trump or Biden win the election. China’s path is secure. Xi can decouple, while maintaining regional alliances, and softening China’s trade posture w/r to the BRI in Africa, Central Asia, SE Asia, and Europe. Seeing Xi as weakened stems from a tendency to, as Kevin Rudd has said, project our realities/wishes onto China’s very different reality.