Another article on New Yorker (published in 2015), "Born Red", is quite interesting as well on this subject.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red
According to the article, Xi once said,
"People who have little experience with power,
those who have been far away from it, tend
to regard these things as mysterious and
novel. But I look past the superficial
things: the power and the flowers and
the glory and the applause. I see the
detention houses, the fickleness of
human relationships. I understand politics
on a deeper level."
I am sympathetic about Xi's early traumatic experience; but I also feel that if he considers that "human relationship" is essentially "fickle", it would be quite scary as well, especially for a decision maker at a country's top level, as he is. I don't know how much trust he has for any one who is not in his family (or even for his family members); but a society with a very low level of mutual trust is a horrible place to live -- not to mention its average interpersonal cooperation cost would be very high, people would even hurt and damage each other's interest just to obtain a bit more sense of security. The harsh censorship there is one such example; as well as that in China more and more people these days are being sent to prison, after some staged trial in a kangaroo court -- simply because they voiced something that the administration does not want to hear.
Humanity itself is a quite complex matter. It's true that sometimes, certain people can be quite cruel, ruthless, or even cold-blooded; but this should not be a universal trait for the overall human beings -- or otherwise, it would have been a definition for the concept of "human" many centuries ago. There is a dynamic motley of benignity and malignity in any individual -- and the concept of "benignity" or "malignity" can be relative in certain cases. It's better for us all, if we construct a system that could inspire more benignity (-- or if possible, maximize ) out of us.
But today, many dealings by the Chinese government seems to simply view its citizens as objects or even tools, with "fickling" worthiness that does not lie within themselves but is based on the external perspective of the ruling party, to perpetuate their ruling.
Perhaps that is why Xi would raise the question to Biden in 2011/2, "why does the U.S. put so much emphasis on human rights." [1]
Note:
[1] see https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red for the details about that episode...
