i) In September 2017 just prior to the 19th Party Congress, Luo Jianbo, Head of the China Foreign Policy Center at the Central Party School, Beijing had cautioned against over-estimating China's strength and said the people need to guard against "arrogance" and "conceit". He recalled that though the GDP of the US had already surpassed that of Great Britain in 1900, but it had waited patiently till  the middle of the century when it fully took on its role as world leader. He made particular mention in this context of the nationalist fervour generated by the Belt and Road Initiative and the BRI Forum in April 2017. 

ii) On August 1, 2018 some alumnus of the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing published a letter calling for the dismissal of another Professor, Hu Angang, for "misleading policy making". Hu Angang (胡鞍鋼) is an Economics Professor at Tsinghua University.

(Comment: (i) The call for Hu Angang's dismissal can be viewed as criticism of Xi Jinping's policies especially on the economy.

(ii) Hu Angang is known to be a strong supporter of socialism and the CCP. He was born on April 27, 1953 in Anshan, Liaoning Province, China. He is a Professor in the School of Public Policy & Management at Tsinghua University as well as Director of the Center for China Study at Tsinghua-CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences). Hu Angang received his master's degree from the Beijing University of Science and Technology in 1984. He received his PhD in Engineering at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1988.)