The lonely Xi Jinping.

"US payrolls surged at the start of the year, exceeding the optimistic estimate and reducing odds that Federal Reserve policymakers will lower interest rates soon." "US employers boosted payrolls in January by 353,000, the most in a year, following a hefty upward revision to the prior month," while "China's deflation pressures are likely to continue for at least another six months on weak demand as the property crisis continues to sap confidence within the economy." ET. Naturally, China's markets have collapsed. "For a second day running state-backed buying likely scraped Chinese stocks from multi-year lows," as "the so-called 'national team' of Chinese state-backed investors poured $17 billion into index-tracking funds last month and were piling in on Friday and Monday as markets fell, analysts say." Reuters. "The hit to share prices in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and New York has reached some $7 trillion since early 2021 (over $6 trillion on the Chinese markets and hundreds of billions more from Chinese companies listed on Wall Street)." "As last year's rally evaporated, an estimated 90% of those once bullish foreign investors headed for the exits; some of whom were also nursing their wounds from the property companies' defaults on high-yielding dollar-denominated bonds." Atlantic Council. As if to prove the point, "China's consumer prices fell at their steepest pace in more than 14 years in January while producer prices also dropped, ramping up pressure on policymakers to do more to revive an economy low on confidence and facing deflationary risks." Reuters. Adding fuel to fire, "Exports measured in US dollar terms stood at $3.38 trillion in 2023, down by 4.6% compared to the year before." "Imports also fell last year, by 5.5% to $2.56 trillion." CNN. Trade surplus was $823 billion. To compensate, "However, China has diverted financial resources from real estate to manufacturers rather than households, raising overcapacity concerns, deepening factory-gate deflation," and pushing other countries to raise barriers to subsidised Chinese goods undercutting their own industries. To add salt to the wound, "Between 2022 and 2023, the value of goods imported to the US from Mexico increased by almost 5%, up to over $475 billion," while "Chinese imports fell 20% in the same time, $427.2 billion, just slightly above Canada." BI. Academic Willy Wo-Lap Lam has written a book titled - Xi JInping: The Hidden Agendas of China's Ruler for Life, in which he says that Xi has expunged an astonishing number of people from the party to avoid any challenge to his power. "The CCPgreatly fears popular protests, for it does not truly represent the people. Militias are now being established within state-owned enterprises and even in private companies, their role being to maintain law and order within the vicinity of their enterprises." Xi Jinping is actually a Buddhist, alleged a Chinese source. The Basij militia in Iran is used to violently suppress any protest against the brutal Ayatollahs (wikipedia) who can count on support from an Islamist section of the population. The CCP must be atheistic. How many is it prepared to kill if a revolt breaks out? Xi Jinping is ruling through fear. Must be very lonely when even your friends don't trust you. Can't even claim divine support.