Yes. The Chinese establishment is much more organized and organizationally intelligent than the US government right now. They peg the renmindbi, so the proper way to analyze this is while is to assume it has a goal and is intentional.

The idea that Xi is "running scared" is too ridiculous to be funny. I'm not pro-China, but one has to have some frightening bias to say that. He's the most powerful person in the world right now.