I have looked at China's "belt and road" program, in conjunction with the building of the islands in the South China Sea, and I see echoes of the Japanese "East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." The parallels that I am drawing are the economic initiatives to try to draw in the neighbors of China to the south and west, combined with strong bases and a strong navy to protect China from the US, away from the Chinese mainland, in the Pacific. What this would allow any Chinese leader is the ability to largely ignore the rest of the world unless the Chinese want to engage, at least in their minds. Again, similar to the Japanese strategy. To your thinking above, this would allow the Chinese leader to experiment with, and make mistakes like, your illustrations of Xi's errors, and not worry about them, at least in the sense that they haven't been existential mistakes.