China is in an extremely precarious position - the population is entirely controlled by a booming economy, they NEED a gdp growth rate of 6%+ every year simply to absorb new workers entering the workforce, they need the rest of the world to trade with to support a growing middle class, they need industries running to support the growing real estate and stock markets their population leverages as accumulating wealth. Their authoritarian streak is tolerated by the citizens as long as the economy grows.
Covid19 has brought that to a crashing halt worldwide. Other countries will struggle and have recessions, but China entering a recession or depression is doubly dangerous for them since if you have a population already resentful of the social, political, religious, etc restrictions will economic stagnation be the straw that breaks the camels back? The primary trigger of the 1989 Tiananmen square protests was corruption, inflation, and a wealth gap between rural farmers (the government was giving them IOUs in lieu of real money for crops) and the elite.
China has over 800m workers in its labor force and over 10m new workers every year compete for jobs, the numbers are just staggering compared to most Western countries. Thats a lot of people who are going to get angry if they lose their house, can't support their family, and see their future crumble. Mix in the fact that men far outnumber women in China due to a number of factors (1 child policy, infanticide, etc) and you are building a recipe for a catastrophe.
This is a picture of an art university entrance exam from a single school in 2018, 7000 students competing for like 200 spots. I think the photo sums up the hypercompetitive world of the Chinese economy and how something like covid 19 is going to have long lasting, unknown effects
