My thoughts:

1. Dual-circulation strikes me as a “have your cake and eat it too” approach, or “communism locally, capitalism globally,” but I am not an economist. Cynics tell me it is a way for industrialists to maintain current economic conditions, keeping lower classes (such as rural hukou holders) in manufacturing jobs as a way to keep prices low as China continues BRI projects while keeping people passive and undereducated (see: education “rectification”). Realists tell me it is an experiment in state capitalism by a state leaders insecurely entangled in a global economy built by capitalist democracies.

2. The west and much of Asia are preparing for war with China. Diplomacy with the Taliban as well as withdrawal from Afghanistan is partially a strategic pivot by the US and NATO — NATO articulated last year that Chinese imperialism in the Pacific was a significant threat to its security, and is now a primary focus. “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy is not really diplomacy, and is not intended to influence foreign countries; “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy is only meant to influence popular opinion at home. The current regime does not engage in diplomacy, only business; time will tell if they are as willing to sacrifice their young as they say, especially given the PRC’s demographic time-bomb.