The core political challenge for Xi, therefore, is whether a crisis of business confidence prompts him to decisively throw his lot in with his economic reform team and accept a partial loss of political control as an acceptable price to pay for the realization of his much-cherished vision of the China Dream. This will cut against his instincts to strengthen party control over the private sector, but the pressures of ongoing trade and technology disputes with the United States and its allies may have made this an easier decision for him than it otherwise would be. The evidence so far, however,
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