We will have to disagree. I have had discussions with Chinese students here and their expectations of the of their government in the future are very interesting.
For example, early on, the government owned all the housing and paid the maintenance which even the Chinese government learned didn’t work. So they leased purchased to the people. Maintenance improved and I think the leases end approx 2020. In their mind they own it, have worked hard for it, and aren’t going to give it up easily.
There are a lot of things under the radar that are not in the common media. Time will tell.
Well I’m not really trying to argue just for the sake of arguing. I really do not see what you seem to be saying. For starters, there is really no such thing as “Chinese” people. There are a dozens of different nations living in the boundaries of China and not all of them like each other. There are hundreds of different languages and dialects. The Han majority has managed to impose most of it’s will on the rest but many of these people don’t even consider themselves “Chinese” so it’s a complicated situation.
Further, Chinese “students” have been supposedly changing the future of China for generations now, and have not done so. I remember when the Tiananmen Square incident happened even though I was very young. It was supposed to usher in a new China, but it did not. I remember when we were told that economic prosperity would lead to more freedom and then it did not. I remember when we were told that welcoming China into the world system would bring about an end to communism and then it did not. For China, the future is always just that-THE FUTURE.
Now that the government is clamping the screws down tighter, no rational person could say they are getting more free.