Is Xi Zinping's dream of superpower status at risk with the Covid protests?

It seems extraordinary that Covid-19 started in China (in December 2019)- no one disputes that except Beijing - and yet here we are nearly three years later and the country is still suffering from a rising number of cases. Unlike other countries where Covid is also still a problem, Beijing, or more particularly President Xi Zinping, is behaving like he did when the first outbreak began in Chinese cities, ordering total lockdowns. Most scientists would say that now after the long pandemic the world has to get used to having Covid around in some form and to treat it like annual flu. Very few people in the UK bother to wear masks anymore, even on packed Underground trains. But Xi is a leader who wants total control over people's lives and so he has ordered towns and cities where Covid is rampant to close their doors and not emerge until he says so. When that edict led to people losing their lives in an apartment block fire, protests erupted and are still erupting. Those with more bravery than most Chinese people are calling for Xi to resign. He won't of course, he is the president for life. But I wonder if there are members of the Communist party Central Committee who might be worried that if millions of Chinese people start to demonstrate against the Covid restrictions, it could prove fatal for the Beijing leadership. It's the one area where Xi is vulnerable. Social unrest could undermine his grand vision for China to become a military and economic superpower. He is so hell-bent on this dream that he won't allow China's population to spoil his plans. But if the protests get worse he could face another Tiananmen Square disaster of 1989 when hundreds, if not thousands, of Chinese people were killed by the security authorities who used tanks to quell unarmed protesters. That could just finish off Xi, and his dream of leading a superpower to rival the US.