With roughly just six percent of Chinese households actually owning stock, the recent calamity in the Shanghai Composite Index is not likely to deeply scar the country’s economy. But the sense that the government does not have sufficient control over the economy to prevent such a deep reversal of financial fortunes has been strong enough to capture President Xi Jinping’s attention. Plus, Xi’s reforms across several concerns of government – corruption, military, economy – seem to be generating more and more discontent deep inside government circles. Facing such challenges, Xi has taken assertive actions, cracking down on dissent and cracking the whip on the bureaucracy. He has focused officials on the long term and taken deliberate actions to shore up the short term. First, for the long term, he has officials continuing to focus on capital acquisition, international involvement and economic reforms. Meanwhile, for the short term, he has aggressively deployed his power, freeing state-owned financial institutions to pump money into the economy again. In the past, Chinese leaders have pushed forward with abandon and then quickly adjusted tactics as extremes of expenditures threatened stability. That is Xi’s approach now, and unless something extraordinary happens, that will get China through its current stresses again.