All true, but what also is at work are increasingly fragile faultlines within the CCP and within China. President Xi is having to watch his back, while also trying to navigate a country that is not nearly has robust as many, within and outside China, would have us think. The fact that the legitimacy of the CCP rests almost exclusively on a Faustian bargain with its own people is not a stable foundation in my mind. Soon after I arrived in China, I went to a talk about China and the Middle Income Trap. A fascinating study -- descriptive not prescriptive -- by Bank Suisse gave China a 50-50 chance of becoming a developed country. More is necessary than economic movement. Rule of law, education, and healthcare, are three other major factors, and all three are highly uneven within the country. Some would say that the first in this short list is non existent. The point being is that if China's economic engine faulters any more than it already is, things could get truly dicey (dicy?) for the residence of Zhonghanhai.