I would add from medicine to food to high-end manufacturing the PRC isn't developed even in Shanghai or Beijing. The last time I was in Shanghai in 2018 I was choking on pollution levels found no where else on earth except India. Not to mention I couldn't even buy coffee because the PRC's payment system is glorified in the press, but now blocks literally all foreign credit cards. What better example is there of we don't want anyone from anywhere than you cannot even pay me.

On the world trajectory, don't forget that the PRC has a very tenuous and schizophrenic relationship with both Africa and South America. Both continents are also full of democracies whose leaders may warm to investment but whose populations bridle at Beijing's terms.

Also, note that Belt and Road lending has plummeted, with independent analysis showing Beijing has gotten paid back for only around 50 percent of its investment projects. As the Mainland ages it doesn't have the cash flow to sustain its current model.

Add in the fact that the Mainland is forecast to lose between 500 and 700 million people between now and 2100 and the trajectory under Xi is anything but secure.

I kind of agree with others that he is basically damning the average citizen to middle income status so he will maintain power.

There are less foreigners in Mainland China today than during the Qing dynasty. You cannot be a 21sr century knowledge economy without the free flow of ideas and people. There was enough wiggle room before with continued reform Beijing could have done it.

Now, the increasing noise and pressure isn't because the PRC is strong. It's because they are weak, growing weaker, and the time horizon for high income is getting beyond their reach. The Politburo knows this and that is why they are returning to authoritarianism. Look at the change in messaging to, it's devolved in ambition to modestly prosperous society. The Long March is getting the PRC public ready not for being number one, but for never making it.