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.
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.
Yet, here in the USA we willingly give up freedom for “safety”.
It very much depends on the trend of freedom, having much we give it up, having little, it is cherished and fought for.