For pessimists, China is in a bind, best summarised by a Chinese idiom about being 'beset with difficulties both at home and abroad'.
At home, social strife is escalating amid an economic slowdown, exemplified by blind activist Chen Guangcheng 's dash to the American embassy in Beijing and by the ensuing diplomatic tussle between the US and Chinese governments. Moreover, the fallout from the Bo Xilai scandal has continued unabated, with persistent and dire speculation that the scandal is causing an unprecedented schism in the nation's leadership, so much so that the Communist Party's 18th Congress - which approves the once-in-a-decade leadership change - could be delayed.
Abroad, tensions between Beijing and Manila have been running high as ships from China and the Philippines have been confronting each other for more than a month over disputed Huangyan Island. Mainland state media have carried strongly-worded editorials warning Manila that Beijing's patience is wearing thin and that it is preparing for the worst-case scenario.
In particular, Chinese nationalists are increasingly upset about Beijing's failure to force Manila to back down after more than a month, arguing that if Beijing cannot put Manila in its place, it will have far-reaching implications for China's territorial disputes with other countries. Complicating the situation further, many mainlanders have pointed fingers at Washington, believed to be 'the black hand' behind Manila's uncharacteristically tough stance.
Should people get seriously worried? There is little doubt that the Chinese leaders are faced with a potent combination of daunting domestic and international challenges rarely seen in recent decades. And it has come at the worst possible time, as those challenges have complicated the already intense jockeying for a new leadership line-up to be unveiled later this year.
But worries that the Chinese leadership is being thrown into disarray, or worse, facing a further split because of those developments, are overstated.
Following Beijing's decision to sack Bo from the Politburo last month, there has been rising speculation that the party is seriously split over how to deal with the charismatic politician, who became the flag-bearer of the country's rising leftists. This has already impacted the party's intense jockeying in the run-up to the congress.