Challenges to the authority of Xi Jinping are becoming more recognized, provoking Xi to take surprising and, some would say, extreme actions. Specifically, Xi looks to outsiders like his touch is not as magical as once thought, and the risk to his leadership that such a changing perception represents has triggered severe crackdowns on Politburo power figures as well as on any and all challengers to Xi’s control. While the political realm has distracted Xi (and represents an operational problem), his attention has also been drawn to the economy. His need to maintain citizen support and keep businesses on his side has led him to take some aggressive actions to stimulate the economy. Rather than wait out the downturn and let the invisible hand of the marketplace do something dynamic, Xi is applying the visible hand of the marketplace to push things forward. This implies that the visible hand will be more obvious in the months ahead, as Xi represses the opposition and boosts the economy.