I was living in Shanghai in 2018 when the Chinese National People’s Congress lifted the two-term limit for Chinese presidents, effectively making Xi Jinping "dictator for life." My feeling at that time was that this is a sign not of strength, but of profound weakness. If Xi was so unconfident in his legacy that he could not find a worthy successor in the usual amount of time, what did that say about him? And about China after Xi?

In my 4.5 years in China (I left in Nov 2019) the country seemingly became more paranoid, with noticeable increases in internet censorship and street-level policing, as well as intensifying nationalist propaganda in everyday media.

We all saw what happened in Hong Kong in the past couple years. We know what has been happening in Xinjiang for longer. China is clearly at war with the "enemies within," and this article gives me an extremely similar vibe. To my mind, this all adds up to weakness, not strength. The Xi regime is trying to forestall dissent, fragmentation, and collapse. Will they succeed? Maybe. But at what cost? The brain drain on China is continuous, the capital flight steady. A "second cultural revolution" may strengthen and perpetuate the CPC's grip on the country, but it ultimately weakens China, and is hardly a threat at all to other countries.