One belt, one road, one man

Xi has already become China's most powerful leader since at least Deng Xiaoping in the 1990s

The pageantry permeating Beijing this week showed that China’s expansive vision for a new global economic order had another goal: Boosting President Xi Jinping’s grip on power at home.
 
From fawning state media campaigns to the words of the man himself, the so-called Belt and Road Forum repeatedly stressed Xi’s centrality to infrastructure-and-trade initiative that brought about 30 world leaders to Beijing, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Communist Party chief claimed personal credit for the “project of the century,” unusual in a political system that stresses collective leadership.
 
“This is the initiative I proposed in 2013,” Xi