Not emotional, writing style lazy/kurt on mobile.

>personal taste / it's a drop compared / evidence

Mainstream TV/film is trash because of censorship. Ditto with Chinese journalism under Xi, lots of talent left. Point is censorship constraints industries, but not the entire creative talent pool. Rote Chinese education system + current level of censorship is not strong enough to blunt creative outflow in a nation with as much human capita as China, output not a drop but also not close to full potential. There's probably negative per capita affects, but it hasn't stopped China from climbing ranking polls in science, innovation indexes (the evidence) etc, and in terms of strategic global competition that's enough. It will hit future Chinese cultural export and soft power, but I don't see east asian culture substantively competing with Hollywood/US culture, who is simply too strong. Consequence of inertia of being wealthy superpower that can brain drain/poach talent from entire world. It's not just because of democracy, otherwise we'd all be into Norwegian media and Swedish Gripen would be the best fighter in the world.

>Chinese hypersonics

DF missiles started as Soviet R2 & R5 copies designs in 60s. Developments after have been indigenous efforts, there's been many iterations. Chinese hypersonics are ahead of Russian designs. Like Huawei indigenous 5G innovations after copying western vendors. Familiar copy, iternate, innovate pattern. People are still fixated on the copy part when much of Chinese hardware is at iterate or innovate phase.

>defense budget cover for massive corruption

US MIC is big drain. Entrenched interests, pork barrel waste tied to political process etc. But at least enough inertia that US military is largely unrivalled. PLA very corrupt and useless before Xi, less so now. This is evident because Chinese military under Xi reforms is an actual acquisition powerhouse while capabilities are constantly improving (from huge deficit gap), and Chinese military expenditure is ~2% of GDP, aka appropriate NATO commitment. Chinese military is not that exceptional relative to GDP and population. Of course things stretch further in China due to PPP but there hasn't been massive waste. That's why neighbours are shitting bricks, China spending modest amount on military efficiently has disproportionate effect on regional power balance. But the alternative is not modernizing with modest budget, which is an unrealistic expectation. Of course the real issue is there's a bunch of disputes to resolve. Also Japan has no nuclear weapons.

>anti-corruption drives

There is nothing wrong with anti-corruption drives nor political consolidation if it serves purpose. Corruption + incentives is the mechanism that made rapid Chinese development possible. China is the only country where increased corruption correlated with increased growth. Corruption is good. Until it's not. And by Xi, the corrosive effects of corruption outweighed its use as development instrument. So corruption was reigned in because it reached level that destabilized social order and undermined the political system (CIA infiltration). So not just Xi's enemies but literal enemies of the state.

Last point on Xi and I'm disengaging because too much screetime. Leaked US intelligence of Xi, roughly "not very smart, but incorruptible, except maybe by power". Not very smart feels true, but it's hard to argue his policies have largely delivered in areas that matter. Morally incorruptible seems true, Xi believes in socialism a little to hard, which ties back to the not very smart part. Corrupt by power also rings true. These are all terrible qualities, but somehow he's making it work. I say this begrudingly because anti-corruption drive killed the gift-giving industry that some family made livelihood in. Anyway, it's working until it doesn't since he'll be around for a while. But the alternative would have been BoXiLai and US carriers still sailing through Taiwan strait. There was a very small window while US was distracted by ME where China could make gains in the region, but Xi seems to have pulled it off. Doesn't mean things can't be better domestically (i.e. XJ shitshow) but short medium term Xi has priorities right. When people say Xi is causing China to regress, they are typically not cognizant of all the essential things he did for progress, and that the alternative to him would have been much worse, at least for Chinese interests. This is not a position I thought I could hold a couple years ago.