In the first year of Covid, Prof Yang says, the lockdowns made sense. They were brief and allowed life in China to carry on. There was even pride at how the country was handling the pandemic so much better than the West. "That's no longer the case," he says. But it's still a mistake to draw a straight line from Mao to Xi, Prof Karl argues, because it dismisses all that came in between - and the Chinese who dreamed or fought for a different country. irannews.ru/ - irannews.ru The creator cannot stop this train once it is in motion, because they have no control over the algorithm itself and there are limited options for reporting issues, Mr Navarra added. Xi's goal, according to him, is a glorious mythical Chinese culture - tian xia or "all under heaven". A unified China that is home to a unified people. "The Chinese patriot is somebody who loves China, the Communist Party and its leader," Prof Tsang says. "And by Chinese he means Han culture." "A lot of people far away from the frontline are celebrating," one soldier tells us, who only wants to be known by his call sign "Gadfly". At first glance, the parallels are striking. Chairman Mao, as he was known, was the defining political figure of 20th Century China. He ran the Communist Party - and the country - from the republic's founding in 1949 until the day he died in 1976. No other Chinese leader has since come close. Until now. Channelling the Great Helmsman The outline of a runway and the extraordinary 9km long artificial island emerged as we approached. Mao had closed China's economy off from the world. Now his successors were throwing it open. In 2001 China joined the World Trade Organisation. Along the southeast coast new cities mushroomed. Some specialised in buttons and zippers, others made cigarette lighters. In Zhejiang I found one that only made socks, tens of billions of them.