TAIPEI, Taiwan — When Xi Jinping strode into the Bird's Nest Olympic stadium in the winter, waving and bundled in a black jacket and mask, hundreds of Chinese spectators and performers cheered in what was meant to be the start of a victorious year for their nation's president.
The Communist Party leader had personally seen to the smooth execution of the Beijing Winter Games, a show of China's power at a critical moment on the world stage. He had banked on steady, if slower, economic growth. And his firm zero-COVID policy had largely contained a pandemic that had battered the U.S. and Europe.
But things — even amid Xi's tightly choreographed control of the state — have not gone as planned, presenting a glitch six months before the Communist Party is expected to endorse him for an unprecedented third term as its leader.
