Xi Jinping is heading into another five years as China’s paramount leader with a tightening grip on the ruling party and a vow to cement the country’s superpower status at home and abroad.

But that projection of strength belies a critical weakness: China’s tanking economy, and Xi’s inability or unwillingness to fix it.

On Sunday, Xi walked onto a Beijing stage to confirm his appointment to a third term, followed by a new top leadership team purged of rival factions and packed with loyalists — a procession that telegraphed party cohesion and strength.

Yet, for all its reputation as an economic juggernaut, China is struggling. Its economic growth is slowing, due to factors ranging from Xi’s zero-Covid strategy to inflation related to the war in Ukraine, according to the World Bank. China’s youth joblessness rate stood at about 19 percent in August. That’s dangerously high for a party that trumpets rising living standards as proof of wise governance.

But Xi has refused to renounce his “no limits” partnership with Russian President Vladimir Putin and is maintaining zero-Covid despite the costs. In addition, his ideologically driven economic policy prescriptions — which lean toward a strong-armed interventionist approach rather than support for the country’s burgeoning private sector — could stunt growth further.

Xi’s third term clearly spooked markets in Hong Kong and the United States. Investors on Monday were dumping Chinese tech sector stocks due to concern that Xi will maintain policies that have wiped billions off the balance sheets of once booming technology firms over the past year.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, and his premier Li Keqiang meet with representatives of model civil servants during a national award ceremony held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Aug. 30, 2022.