Three years have passed since the detection of the first COVID-19 case in China. However, whereas visible signs of a pandemic are virtually inexistent in the West, the Asian country is still fighting new flare ups, triggering social unrest over the last few weeks. Earlier this year, we warned that Xi would try to curb restrictions after his re-election in the October Politburo meeting but that this would in no scenario be a simple process. This is exactly what happened. In this report, we analyse the reasons behind this situation, while attempting to answer the following questions: