Xi faces unaccustomed headwinds in 3rd term bid

On July 24, the CBIRC announced on its website that an investigator at CBIRC's branch in Henan province, Li Huanting, is being investigated for corruption.

At the press conference on July 21, CBIRC spokesman Qi Xiang said the five rural banks in Anhui and Henan provinces have started reimbursing their depositors. A second round of reimbursement began on July 21 for people who have each deposited RMB100,000 or less in these banks, Qi said.

With problems like the Henan protests and mortgage boycott, it means Xi has to "listen" more, said the China watcher. These issues may result in princelings (relatives of current and former senior Chinese officials) having their people, whose views do not entirely align with Xi's, installed in senior positions at the 20th Party Congress, the China watcher predicted.

"Although Xi is very powerful now, he is losing support among the middle class and big city elites in China," said Andre Wheeler, chief executive officer of Asia Pacific Connex, an Australian consulting firm. "There are 400 million people in China's middle class affected by the property crisis."