President Xi Jinping of China has played his boldest political card yet, maneuvering to extend his rule indefinitely so that he can maintain control of the country’s complex system long enough to achieve the dream of great-power status, asserting economic and political influence across the globe.

Since China began to open to the West in the late 1970s, the United States and its allies have tried to integrate it into the political and economic system they built after World War II, hoping that economic progress would lead eventually to political liberalization.

Mr. Xi’s move proves that policy has failed and that China will set its own path, challenging the liberal order based on the rule of law, human rights, open debate, free-market economics and a preference for elected leaders who leave office peacefully after a fixed period. Despite increasing concerns about China’s evolution, the West has yet to come to grips with this threat.

Since taking office in 2013, Mr. Xi has amassed power assiduously, taking control of not just the government but also of the Chinese Communist Party, the military and the press. He has imposed his views on the educational system and culture, hardening an already authoritarian system that ruthlessly controls social media and wields law enforcement to crush dissent. The obsession with control hints at a deeply insecure state, not a global power.