[nonrepeating]

That's an interesting question. The Economist attempted to answer it with their series "The Prince" (https://www.economist.com/theprincepod), and I believe their conclusion is that Xi has indeed consolidated power around himself and is nearly an autocrat at this point. Two provisos on this, however:

- The author, Sue-Lin Wong, is something of an outsider, and outsider reporting on China typically misses some subtleties of the real situation in the country.

- Given the nature of China, there will never be a fully autocratic leader there, though it may appear that way to some, and the would-be autocrat might be deluded into thinking they are.