A rare street clash over the weekend on the border of virus-stricken Hubei province shows the challenges President Xi Jinping faces as China looks to get its economy moving again after appearing to gets its Covid-19 outbreak under control. Hubei is only now emerging from a two-month lockdown that helped limit the virus's spread to other parts of China.

The scenes, captured on videos posted on social media, showed Hubei police clashing with officers from neighboring Jiangxi province who wanted to keep the border closed. Residents charged at police in riot gear, with bystanders cheering them on with chants of "Hubei, step on the gas."

"Chinese leaders were already worried about stability before the Covid-19 outbreak," said Trey McArver, partner at China-based consultancy Trivium China. "Now those anxieties are on steroids. The scenes at the Hubei-Jiangxi border will only serve to exacerbate those worries."

Communist Party leaders have recently expressed concern about unrest in the fallout from epidemic. While China spends more on internal security than national defense, giving the party ample tools to quash political dissidents, local officials have struggled at times to contain bursts of anger due to bread-and-butter issues such as labor disputes, investment fraud and environmental disasters.