"And wouldn't the shock for the Chinese people just be that much worse when control over the information inevitably breaks down? "
Surprisingly this may not be the case.
Sitting next to a young Chinese national at the train station who goes to school in the USA ... he told me he likes that the 'state controls the press' for the following reason: 'because some crazy person could just, you know, get a knife and start killing people'.
It was all rather odd: that it's all about public safety, and avoiding 'crazy people with knives' - but oddly - he was living mostly in the USA. I asked him 'do you feel unsafe right now, in the US, that someone could come at you with a knife'? He replied that he did not. But the irony was lost on him.
There are a lot of people who support the 'one state / one party' thing even if they might disagree with some of the tactics here and there, they just see it in a different way.
In much the same way Russians on some level are very aware of Putin's curruption and yet look past it.
Surprisingly this may not be the case.
Sitting next to a young Chinese national at the train station who goes to school in the USA ... he told me he likes that the 'state controls the press' for the following reason: 'because some crazy person could just, you know, get a knife and start killing people'.
It was all rather odd: that it's all about public safety, and avoiding 'crazy people with knives' - but oddly - he was living mostly in the USA. I asked him 'do you feel unsafe right now, in the US, that someone could come at you with a knife'? He replied that he did not. But the irony was lost on him.
There are a lot of people who support the 'one state / one party' thing even if they might disagree with some of the tactics here and there, they just see it in a different way.
In much the same way Russians on some level are very aware of Putin's curruption and yet look past it.