I’m afraid we have as yet seen very little of what the Chinese communists are willing to do to keep their power.
I don’t disagree. But change is on the wind. And socialism, Marxism, Maoism, the more brutal they become, the faster they will join the dinosaurs in history.
Xi gets desperate as he sees the possibility of losing the Mandate of Heaven. That is still a governing concept in China. Xi is a direct descendant of the Emperors going back at least three millennia, perhaps four. Xi is merely the Emperor of the Communist Dynasty. Reading history, and a concise overview of that is The Chinese Military Classics. the character of the Emperors and the system of rule has not changed since Shih Huang Di.
Not so, since that is in the history books.