On August 27, retired Chinese newspaper editor Li Guangman wrote an essay that assailed celebrity culture and misbehaving corporations. After more than one thousand such essays written in obscurity, this one appeared first on the WeChat website, then spread on far-left-wing websites and ultimately appeared on at least five major Communist Party–run news websites, including the People’s Daily. Two weeks later, the People’s Daily ran a front-page editorial that said the government remained committed to market forces. And officials around President Xi have recently gone out of their way to try to reassure private entrepreneurs that the government values them. What do these seemingly incongruous actions by the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party signal? The answer is an indication of the balancing act that China’s President Xi Jinping is currently attempting to carry out. In late 2022, there will be a Twentieth Party Congress leadership transition meeting to pick a new Politburo and general secretary. As Mr. Xi prepares to win a third five-year term and lead his country toward the goals he has enumerated, not only for the next five years but for the next three five-year terms, he is shaking up the entire bureaucratic hierarchy in China, pleasing some who favor a stronger, more socialist government, while continuing to encourage innovation through a combination of public and private collaboration. He is looking to push China toward his goal of the country’s being a power player in all aspects of domestic and global, economic and political spheres.