I think he is the real deal. The plans on Europe and overall anti US strategies are very thought out, long drawn and still managed to be succesful. It's especially impressive when you consider that for ~80% of his tenure, he was working with a smaller economy than US.
He managed to make countries which should in theory all unite to fight China instead start infighting and obstruct eachother.
It’s all impressive until you realize that 98 percent of Western China experts are functionally illiterate in the Chinese language and routinely dismiss anything from China as knockoffs. It’s like clubbing seals or beating mentally disabled children at chess.