About Xinanigans

Xinanigans is a strategic intelligence brief focused on how Xi Jinping’s China governs for power.

I write for risk officers, warfighters, policymakers, and planners—anyone serious about understanding how Beijing fuses ideology, doctrine, and bureaucracy into an engine of influence.

I trace patterns across military doctrine, bureaucratic behavior, propaganda shifts, and performance signals—the subtle but telling cues in how the system adapts, prepares, and conceals. China plans in decades. We should, too.

You’re here for signal—the kind that clarifies power and intent. That’s what I deliver.

On Sources & Method

I track patterns and dig into doctrine to reveal how power operates.

My work is grounded in primary sources: Party directives, PLA theory, institutional behavior, and the language Beijing uses to telegraph intent. I map doctrine to behavior, timing to intention, narrative to control.

Each piece is crafted like a strategic brief—built for the operational mind, for people who need to know what’s happening, what it means, and what to do next.

About the Author

Erika Lafrennie is a geopolitical strategist and national security advisor with a background in U.S. intelligence, irregular warfare, and global risk. She’s briefed CEOs, diplomats, and military leaders on how authoritarian systems signal, and how democratic ones must respond.

She leads Cypher Strategies, serves on the board of the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum, and created Xinanigans as an open-source project: a briefing book in real time for those who still believe strategy is an American strength.

Connect on LinkedIn or email inquiries@xinanigans.com.