News Snapshot:
Chinese leader Xi Jinping went from cementing his supremacy last fall to battling a public-health and economic crisis into the new year—fallout from an abrupt pivot from “zero Covid” that could cast a shadow over China for months to come. Mr. Xi secured a norm-breaking third term as Communist Party chief in October, and stacked the leadership with allies who sang their leader’s praises and trumpeted his vision of a thriving China. That rosiness dissolved amid intensifying economic pain and a wave of public protests against Mr. Xi’s zero-tolerance Covid strategy of lockdowns and border controls, followed by a haphazard...
