No turning back for Xi Jinping

Hard, risk-filled times are coming to China and the world, and Xi Jinping is in his element. For nearly two hours on October 16th China’s supreme leader instructed Communist Party members to face challenges at home with a fighting spirit, and to seize strategic opportunities in a shifting international balance of power. The last part is code for the perceived decadence and decline of America, a country that hovered over the whole speech as a source of menace, though it went unnamed. Mr Xi’s uncompromising address—a political report, in party jargon—suggests that officials will stick with what he called his “all-out people’s war” against covid-19. It calls for resistance to foreign powers bent on containing China; and for members to guide the young to heed the party, study diligently, keep fit, pursue realistic goals and, in due course, make more babies for the motherland.