The book covers a crucial period when Xi Jinping, despite inner-Party opposition, decided to continue in China's top three leadership positions for an unprecedented third term. It explores the popular dissatisfaction accentuated by the slowing economy, loss of millions of jobs, low salaries and rising prices, and Xi Jinping imposing progressively stringent controls on the populace to quell dissatisfaction from metamorphosing into uncontrollable protests. Xi Jinping also introduced administrative curbs and monitoring of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s Politburo members accompanied by intensive ideological and political education of CCP cadres and People's Liberation Army (PLA) personnel.