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Xi Jinping has intensified his patriotic education campaign to reaffirm the CCP's authoritarian rule and he has nurtured a new generation of nationalists who are intolerant of any criticism of the CCP regime and who are muscularly hostile to the Western powers and to Western values. The campaign has fueled ever-sharper demands for deference to China's wishes by foreigners, making compromise extremely difficult if not impossible on issues China deems to be its core interests. But nationalism has been a double-edged sword. Chinese people have become increasingly disaffected, directing their anger to the regime and to Xi personally. After the collapse of Xi's zero-COVID policy, it has become increasingly difficult for Xi to engage young people through nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]