Will China’s Covid wave ruin Xi’s global ambition?

China's leader - President Xi Jinping - had hoped this would be the year he would assert China's dominant position on the global stage, with heightened rhetoric about readying for war and his country's claim over Taiwan, leading many to fear imminent invasion.

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Then there was the public removal of a former president, Hu Jintao, from the Communist party congress and securing an historic third-term - setting Xi up to be President for life.

But, it hasn't been the year Xi and China had hoped for with runaway cases of Covid and protests at the draconian measures in place under China's strict Zero Covid policy - leading to public protests against restrictions, and perhaps for the first time in his decade of rule, Xi Jinping himself.

These same measures have damaged the Chinese economy which is seeing its slowest rate of growth in nearly twenty years. Xi hasn't been getting it all his own way on the international stage either, as the US further distanced itself with Biden vowing to take back more jobs from Asia to the US.

So what next for Xi and China? Will a faltering economy and a loss of patience over Covid restrictions force China to change its approach and tweak its plans for global domination? Or will Xi double-down and push ahead with a risky strategy at home and beyond?

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