China’s 2026 Lunar New Year Reception: Defensive Optics, Retired-Leader Exclusion, and a Domestic Turn in Xi’s Messaging
The source depicts the CCP’s 2026 Spring Festival reception as unusually tense, heavily securitized, and marked by the exclusion of all top-ranked retired leaders from collective attendance. It also suggests Xi Jinping’s speech shifted from outward-facing global ambition in 2025 to a more cautious, domestic stability-and-planning focus in 2026.