There are a lot of parallels between the regime of Xi and that of Qianlong in the second half of the 18thC. Both are what I call "past revering" in ideology. For Qianlong, it was the Neo-Confucian canon of the 11thC Zhu Xi that legitimise the Qing view of "kingship" or absolute power, propagated via the examination system, and any contrarian thinking was brutally crush. One could almost speak of a Qianlong inquisition. Xi resembles that impetus in the way he is reframing Sinified Marxism and positioning himself as the true heir of Mao via Deng and preserver of the CPC. This impetus since 2012 has all but snuffed out any market place for ideas in China. And to me that inevitably will stifle innovation, as it did in the Qing, and thus paradoxically frustrate Xi's dream of the future (and here Xi departs from the Qing autocrats who were not forward looking) in which China will become a modern advanced economy and realise his second centennial goal of China becoming wealthy and strong state (fuqiangguo) by 2049.