Xi Jinping faces a daunting to-do list

Xi Jinping

China's Xi Jinping kicks off his third leadership term with more power than ever, but a mountain of problems to tackle, from a dismal economy to his own COVID-19 policy that has backed the country into a corner, and deteriorating ties with the West.

At home, Xi, 69, must fill myriad jobs in the party and state bureaucracy after the change in leadership at the top of his ruling Communist Party, following its twice-a-decade congress that ended last week.

The economy, to be managed by a lame-duck premier until a parliament session in March, is beset by zero-COVID, a property crisis and falling market confidence after Xi unveiled on Sunday a new Politburo Standing Committee stacked with loyalists.

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Investors will look for clues to how China will tackle economic policy in the run-up to, and during, the party's annual Central Economic Work Conference. Initial post-congress judgment was harsh: global investors dumped Chinese assets on Monday and the yuan tumbled to its weakest in nearly 15 years on fears that ideology trumps growth under China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.

"My guess is that we will now see the ‘full Xi' approach to everything," said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"That very well could mean continued muddled economic policies, since he is clearly balancing growth with equity, security, and climate goals, and greater tensions with the West along a number of fronts," he said. With Xi increasingly focused on security and self-sufficiency, many China-watchers expect more of the aggressive diplomacy that has alienated Beijing from the West on issues ranging from human rights and pressure on Taiwan to support for Putin.

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