WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- These are difficult days for Chinese President Hu Jintao, as he faces a new Party Congress that was supposed to impose his stamp upon the regime and select the next generation of leaders by appointing his chosen successors to the new Politburo standing committee.

But everything is going wrong at once. Another 600,000 Chinese-made toys have just been withdrawn by U.S. authorities for lead paint and other safety reasons. China’s export miracle faces both wage inflation and new competition from India. Chinese exports may also be heading for trouble with its biggest single market, the European Union, after the EU Chamber of Commerce in China this month issued a bitterly critical report on discrimination against them by Chinese regulators.

Taiwan is thumbing its nose, preparing to display its military might (including cruise missiles that can hit Chinese targets) with its first military parade in 16 years to celebrate next week’s national day. There are threats of military action if Taiwan acts on the suggestion by President Chen Shui-bian that Taipei should apply to join the United Nations under the name of Taiwan, a direct challenge to Beijing’s insistence on "one China.” Western military observers note with alarm China’s new chief of the general staff has just been promoted from his last job as general commanding the region facing Taiwan.

China’s investors are blithely ignoring official warnings to curtail the floods of savings going into the Shanghai stock market, and an ominous bubble is building, along with inflation spurred on to 8 percent by the surge in pork and other food prices.

And now a campaign is under way by human-rights groups and Western politicians to organize a boycott of next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing, in protest of China’s support for deeply unsavory regimes in Sudan and Myanmar. The Internet reports and grim images of the brutal clampdown of Myanmar’s Buddhist monks may have been stopped, but the horror lingers on. China is paying an increasingly high price for its client states.