The trouble I see with Party Central now is that Xi is only tuned into Chinese nationalism, and giving them a worldview which supports the "rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" thesis. It COMPLETELY disregards the views of non-Chinese, except those who are fully willing to support the Party line. By supporting the Party line, they then lose credibility in the west.

Before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, several leading western PR firms were pitching to the Chinese government to get their international account, and help to form a more sympathetic view to China's rise in the west. Eventually, Party Central decided that it was better to keep everything under the management of the United Front Department of the Central Committee, with everything run from Beijing.

The price of this, for China, is that the overseas image of China is actually decided by the members of the Central Committee, who are all in China. No one outside China has any real say in what is decided, and Hu Xijin of Global Times, and all the wolf warrior diplomats are there to support this single view. It has what the party calls 统一口径, where the images and messages are all unified.

The loss of credibility in the west is a cost they are willing to pay now, because Party Central is effectively betting that the EU and North American economies are going to have a slow recovery from COVID-19, and if China's economy performs well in 2021 in comparison, there will be more interest in China's success formula. When this happens, the west's united front against China will show signs of fracture. This is another example of 战略机遇期 for China, and another opportunity.

When the party talks about 战略机遇期, Party Central is saying that these are rare opportunities delivered to China by major fumbles in the west, such as Trump's very transactional view on diplomatic relations. Because Trump sees international relations as two-party transactions, he is largely unable to see that such an approach usually has knock-on effects, such as directly benefiting China. Moreover, none of his advisors can hold his attention long enough to explain it to him, so they have just given up.

Basically, what Xi is saying is that China has an opportunity to become the global leader without having to fight and win a world war as the US and USSR did at the end of WWII. The results though, can be just as clear. But in order to achieve this goal, China needs to have a strong leadership led by Party General Secretary and Core Xi Jinping.