Absolutely. Material conditions underly everything. And the masses dictate the options of their leaders

But sometimes I feel we forget the first part of "Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please".

We have meaningful individual and collective agency, and even "great men" still exist, even if they nudge history onto one of a limited set of options, rather than drive history forwards.

What Xi does matters, even if he camt flip a switch and declare FALGSC.