Yes I know what Xi thinks about the West. But that doesn't mean that he should just come out and say it openly
Even now China is NOT qualified (Chinese favourite word lol) to go against the entire West by itself (and some minor countries with it).
Xi should be aiming instead to drive a wedge between them which he failed to do even with 4 years of Trump.
IMO maybe in 7-10 years China can withstand West by itself, but definetely not now
Its not that I overly criticise him though. The broad strategy is alright, is just the execution which is lacking here and there.
Btw thats all for diplomacy. Economically he will probably be remembered just after Deng himself
And yet it is ok for all the western politicians to point their fingers on China's domestic matters? It is not only crazy person like Trump and Pompeo, but also Obama, Biden, the Brits and the EU parliament etc. etc.? Xi is noted to be straight like Deng Xiaoping, more straight than Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, that is good. You know what Deng said to Margaret Thechell regarding HongKong? "China is not Argentina, we will bring back HongKong peacefully or otherwise." Deng was leading a country whose GDP and military is only a fraction of what Xi is leading. Why should Xi be shy of saying things loud and clear?
Not ready to fully confront does not mean remaining silence all the time. Back in 1950s, China did not stay out of Korean peninsular, nor 1960s in Vietnam (against US), nor 1970s and 1980s in Vietnam against USSR. Those were standing against spheres of either super powers. Why should China be silent now?
Should or should not drive a wedge and what that wedge mean is your own wish that I am not going to debate. It is about preferred tactics.
Once again the "west" is not a well defined construct. In 10 years who knows who is still part of the "west". As for today, China is not picking on the "west" as a whole either. Remember Wen Jiabao's grand tour around France during Sarkozy's term? If you call the whole EU as the "west", China certainly has many friends in it, like Spain, Italy, France (for now), Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece etc. The composition of friends may change, but so does the enemies. This just demonstrate that there is no west.
It seems that your perception of what China is and should do remained unchanged from the 1990s. This is actually common among both pro-China and anti-China people. But time has changed, China has changed, so should everybody change regardless where people bet their future.