Xi Jinping’s entrenched authority within the Chinese Communist Party and its military structures drives the 98.4% trader consensus against removal before 2027. The October 2026 fifth plenum endorsed record purges across the Central Committee and Central Military Commission, reduced the latter to Xi and one loyalist, and scheduled the 21st Party Congress for the second half of 2027, where he is expected to secure a fourth term. Term limits were eliminated in 2018, informal retirement norms no longer constrain the top leader, and no successor has been designated. Only sudden health events or unforeseen elite fractures could alter this trajectory, though no verifiable indicators point to either in the near term.