Whether this is an empirically correct attitude or not is not the topic of conversation, the fact is that average Chinese citizens are overwhelmingly in support of a surveillance culture because they feel the benefits are obvious and bring meaningful quality of life improvements while the downsides are acknowledged and not regarded as serious enough to outweigh the benefits. Even citizens who are quite critical of the Chinese government in other respects rarely bring up surveillance as a gripe they have.
Thank you. This is the entire argument I was trying to make. I think people are getting confused because I'm talking about how people feel rather than talking about explicit facts. That how people feel about a government body can be very different than how that government body actually acts, and recognizing both is extremely important.
Whether this is an empirically correct attitude or not is not the topic of conversation, the fact is that average Chinese citizens are overwhelmingly in support of a surveillance culture because they feel the benefits are obvious and bring meaningful quality of life improvements while the downsides are acknowledged and not regarded as serious enough to outweigh the benefits. Even citizens who are quite critical of the Chinese government in other respects rarely bring up surveillance as a gripe they have.