China’s harsh anti-COVID policy exacerbated the disunion in the Communist Party and intensified struggles among the party’s different factions, adding further uncertainty to leader Xi Jinping’s path of re-election at the upcoming twentieth party congress. Despite ever stringent zero-tolerance measures on virus transmission, the Chinese Communist regime is having a hard time maintaining its grip on Shanghai. China’s biggest metropolis with the most populous urban area, “is facing an unprecedentedly severe and complex epidemic challenge since the normalization of local zero tolerance prevention and control,” said Wu Jinglei, Director of Shanghai Municipal Health Commission at a March 23 press briefing, according to Party mouthpiece CCTV.  On March 27, Shanghai reported 50 new confirmed cases and 3,450 asymptomatic cases. As of March 22, there were 25,587 close contacts and 60,883 close contacts, announced the local health commission.  Chinese official figures have long been thought to be seriously under reported, especially the …