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[Correct, while Mr. Xi is the most powerful person in the party, he is still part of an oligarchy, not an absolute ruler. ]

Even absolute rulers weren’t necessarily able to do anything they wanted all the time. They were constrained by potential mutiny by powerful members (in their own right) of the imperial clan, influential courtiers, wealthy members of the gentry/aristocracy and military commanders appointed as self-sufficient viceroys to fend off significant foreign or domestic threats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yongle_Emperor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Gao
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cao_Cao
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Lushan

Mao was as powerful an emperor figure as China has ever had. And yet he failed to have Deng Xiaoping killed, protected as Deng was by a powerful regional military commander.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Jianying

Good worldwide map of officially reported “2019-nCoV” cases here:

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html

Take the “official” case count from China with a grain of salt...the CCP is known to underreport cases, they got caught in 2002-2004 vastly underreporting SARS cases.

The map link came from a Crypto (ie. Bitcoin, etc.) YouTuber in Hong Kong I follow: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxODjeUwZHk3p-7TU-IsDOA