China has a long tradition of being self-centered and not really caring what is happening beyond the borders of the Celestial Kingdom. Barbarians live there, wh

China has a long tradition of being self-centered and not really caring what is happening beyond the borders of the Celestial Kingdom. Barbarians live there, who cares about the barbarians. It is striking to me how the current development in Xi's realm mirrors previous closing-offs of China. The Belt and Road initiative is being abandoned (and who knows what happened to the Party eunuchs most involved), the government doesn't even try to reassure foreign investors and may be silently happy about the resulting outflow of foreign investments. During the Covid pandemics, foreigners were randomly bullied (anal tests on arrival etc.) to make them stay away. Isolationism of this sort tends to result in a relatively benign foreign policy, stemming from disinterest. That doesn't say you much about the government itself, though. The government may well be disappearing its critics into gulags by the thousands, and you will never know.