I will totally agree that there is infighting (esp with the military) within the CCP, but as others have noted it's much more centralized that the last 50 years

I will totally agree that there is infighting (esp with the military) within the CCP, but as others have noted it's much more centralized that the last 50 years. That doesn't mean there aren't attempts (within and without) to influence public perception and control narrative (weibo douyin wechat) with news articles, individual bans, and 五毛. It's just that Xi (and Putin to a slightly lesser degree) have isolated themselves so much that even the US political establishment has little idea what they want or plan to do. I'm not sure even the political establishment within China knows much better.