What is political legitimacy? The conceptual basis and historical experience are very different between China and the West. The idea that any Chinese political crisis is caused by lack of democratic legitimacy is flawed. Chinese tradition considers that legitimacy is a dynamic, never-ending process for the ruler to adjust to nature and society, while the modern West elevates the legitimacy question to an ontological and even theological level. Thus, dialogue on political legitimacy between China and the West often goes nowhere. But China now is facing a severe legitimacy crisis. Lacking democratic system cannot explain what is happening. Chinese leader Xi Jinping attempts to restore “Confucian legitimacy,” or the traditional “Mandate of Heaven”; on the other hand, Xi refuses to start any political reforms, because it is his top priority to preserve the existing political system, i.e., a ruling system derived mainly from an alien source, the Bolshevik Russia. The two objectives are totally incompatible and increasingly heading toward fatal clash.