The government of China is a shell, it is a tool of and subservient to the Chinese Communist Party.
The “deep state” in China is various party apparatchiks allied into factions competing within the party structure. They control local parties and through them government offices to execute party decisions.
Chairman Xi is the Party General Secretary, Chairman of the Party’s Central Military Commission (who command the Party’s military (the PLA is a Party army, not a national military), and last and least, the ceremonial job of President of the PRC.
Nothing in this structure remotely resembles anything in the West. “Patriotism” in the People’s Republic is allegiance to the dominant Party faction. Anything else is a threat that the Party must neutralize. No where in this discussion are the best interests of China and the people of China. These are irrelevant to the Party.
Yes, but also the population has a very high percentage of people who believe in the *idea* of China.
They may hate the Party, they might admire many things about the West, but they are absolutely NOT in doubt that we are the barbarians and they are the civilized ones- EVERY bit as much as any European in the 16th-19th century would consider the American Indian or African Tribesman an inferior.