The one benefit of the doubt I have granted to President Xi is based on something near to what you say, that if or when things go south in the Middle Kingdom, only a strong hand may be able to keep the country from collapsing into complete chaos. Changes in power, in dynasties, in China never have occurred without bloodshed. Does this excuse the brutality that the CCP is imposing on its own people? No. But it does reveal a method to the madness, the possible preservation of a country with a proud and illustrious past, but with a much more checkered recent history.