@kentwillard Xi has been terrible on foreign policy, and domestically is unrepentantly authoritarian. he has dashed hopes for a freer, more socially liberal China.

but he has also managed to tame China’s plutocrats, has made good industrial policy choices, and has insisted on the primacy of a politically determined social sphere over “market outcomes” that seem (to him) destructive. (i agree with some, disagree with some, of his choices, wish they were more democratically made.)

a mixed bag!