To me it reads as a use of the "cult of personality" rhetoric.
(Edit to add:) This reminded me of Roland Boer talking about how paying attention to the thought of your leaders is important (partially quoted, not exact)[^1]:
In a Western liberal context, there is an absence of any serious attention to the thought of political leaders, even when (rarely) the leader has written and published anything of substance. So, in Western contexts, very little effort is put into engaging with a communist leader's thoughts either when a Communist Party is in power. In the communist tradition, the thought of the Party's general secretary is crucial.
So to me, it reads as demonizing the fact that the leader would have actual thoughts about topics that matter. Since the Western leader's dont do it, they can try to paint Chinese leaders doing it as a bad thing.
[^1]: This is from Chapter 1 "Marxism as China's Special Thing" (Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.)
How do you expect someone to prove a negative? What sort of evidence would you like that proves that something didn't happen?