I have a big picture question in the absence of any specific ones. Looking solely at the China side in this question (not the US or the West), what do people think Xi actually sees as his endgame/motivaton? He has utterly failed to rebalance the economy (although it appears he'll be able to stay up to date on high tech stuff) and appears to have no interest in even trying, and he has managed to unite the entire world more or less (outside a few autocratic governments) against him (if fecklessly in the case of the Germans and some others).

He doesn't seem the type for wishful or hopeful thinking regarding his enemies, so it seems farfetched to say he has gambled everything on a sudden collapse of all major Western powers and alliances (again, the West has its potentially existential problems, but focusing on Xi this question). Did he decide that the party couldn't survive any further economic or political liberalization, and so chose to sacrifice everything in order to maintain absolute political power for the CCP? Is he just more foolish than we thought (he doesn't seem foolish, although nor does he seem theoretically/intellectually deep or wise, rather very strong and amoral and cunning)?

Lines of thought like these have led me to agree with Bill's occasionally posed question that Xi might be a dyed in the wool Marxist believer who is not foolish about his enemies, but just sincerely/ideologically believes Marxism is correct and that the capitalist powers will eventually fall and that everything the CCP does is by definition correct as it is leading towards the scientific truth of communism so maximizing its power and control is automatically the right policy. This seems in line also with John Garnaut's awesome piece on Xi's ideological foundations.

I feel like beginning to discuss these issues in these terms, rather than in purely economic or geopolitical/realist ones, might be more accurate and give us a leg up at not responding with anger or bewilderment at CCP propaganda but enable us to laugh at it, or unpack it with straightforward, effective retorts that might not have been so evident without a background in understanding CCP ideology. Time to delve back into the history of communist governments and ideology?