xi is not "brilliant"(he was very lucky to become PM when he did), and he is losing control.
not just xinjiang, but many provinces of China have been separating themselves from Beijing and trying to declare independence for years.
xi obviously have no control over Taiwan, although they're trying to brute force the government.
Shanghai is very international and doesn't want to be associated with Beijing.
Hong Kong obviously doesn't consider itself as governed by Beijing.
and despite the constant violent dictator tactics, China has persistent protests in every province by brave Chinese citizens standing up and calling out the human rights abuses, the broken economic promises, the countless domestic and foreign political failures of China, the insane quarantine measures taken fruitlessly being a good recent example, the complete collapse of their housing market after the government encouraged everyone to invest all of their life savings in real estate being another.
xi's "iron fist" is gripping sand, and it is falling through his fingers.
Thats the thing about ruling with an iron fist. It works for a short time, but the ones oppressed are just looking for any reason to create your downfall. And there are a lot of oppressed people right now.
How many times does he have to say "the quiet part" before it's not quiet? He called himself a "day one dictator" and promised that this will be the last vote his supporters will need to do. There is no subtle dog whistles anymore, just a campgain strategy of promising to end democracy.
Yea but the Democrats are gonna destroy democracy and America. He's just going to destroy democracy but save america and make it great again (whichever time period before civil rights that is)
I truly think this rhetoric from Trump is what's emboldening DPRK and PRC and Russia and Israel to escalate the way they have been. Because if Trump becomes president they can just do whatever the fuck they want to.