Beijing: As the Chinese President Xi Jinping is eyeing to secure a third term in office, his political opponents are challenging this bid of the President at a time when his much-criticized strict "Zero-COVID" policies have brought the entire nation to the brink of economic collapse.

Xi obviously faced an ever-increasing attack from his opponents and this is evident in a recent post published by Cai Xia, a retired professor at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

In his post, he referred to a regulation entitled "Interim Provisions on the Term of Office of Leading Party and Government Cadres". According to a post by him on Twitter, he said that this provision is still in effect.

It is interesting to note that this interim provision supposedly could challenge Xi's ability to remain at the head of the CCP in the next term, reported Global Strait.

As per this provision, the tenure of the CCP party and the Chinese government leading cadres is limited. They can only serve in the same position for two consecutive terms or a total of 15 years.

After this post by Cai, a Taiwanese media outlet published an article on this provision. In June 5 article, the interim provision could hinder Xi's wish to extend his Party leadership.

The article talks about how Xi, since 2017, had been meeting various substantive obstacles to his re-election. According to former diplomat and author Roger Garside, the Chinese president Xi's opponents are also taking advantage of the country's internal troubles to undermine him.

Garside, the author of the book "China Coup," said that the Chinese leader is facing a combination of external and internal pressures.

"There are tipping points... looming up in the Chinese scene of the very gravest kind," he said, adding that these would allow rivals within the leadership to move against Xi, as per the media portal.

To add insult to injury, China's Zero-COVID policy and mass lockdowns have produced "a very vulnerable state in China, and an imperative to isolate China from the rest of the world," he said.

"And internally, it is aroused, as we have seen on videos from Shanghai and elsewhere, anger, indignation, and an erosion of respect and loyalty for the Communist Party," Garside said adding, "But this came against a background of a disastrous performance in the property sector. We have seen the default of major property developers," he added.