This October marks an epochal moment in Chinese politics: President Xi Jinping will consolidate control of the ruling Chinese Communist Party by engineering a third term as China’s paramount leader at the 20th Party Congress. This will confirm Xi as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong and solidify Xi’s rule until at least 2027 — and possibly for life. It will also have profound implications for U.S.-China relations: Xi over the past decade has steered China’s economic, diplomatic and military policies to a much more confrontational setting. The result: a trade war with the U.S., China’s bid to displace the U.S. as Asia’s dominant superpower and intensifying military intimidation of Taiwan that has raised the possibility of a military conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.

Join POLITICO Live on Wednesday, October 12 at 10 AM ET for a virtual conversation hosted by POLITICO’s China Watcher author Phelim Kine unpacking the implications for U.S.-China relations posed by Xi’s ascendance.