"Plus, the average Chinese doesn't necessarily share the concerns of western observers, they have had a different culture and values of their own for millennia, and a state that wasn't entirely different than their current."
I call rubbish.
Corruption is corruption and nobody ever accepts it as 'part of our historical culture'.
Having a corrupt government official take your home because they want to build a mall is pretty much Universally bad.
Being thrown in a concentration camp because of your religion not something anyone wants.
Having to bribe officials to get where you want is not something anyone wants.
Being told how many children you can and cannot have is not something anyone would rather live with.
I accept that people will accept differing levels of surveillance etc. - but in the end there are universal issues here.
>Corruption is corruption and nobody ever accepts it as 'part of our historical culture'
You'd be surprised. Some cultures don't like rigid "law and order" on everyday life, and prefer bendable laws in some cases (even if are OK with stricter laws in others). It has a lot to do with historical development and custom law, rather than some sterile "law trumps everything" being everybody's utopia.
>Having a corrupt government official take your home because they want to build a mall is pretty much Universally bad.
Sure, but having a strong government and not blow up a 1.6 billion country into competing factions and civil war chaos is pretty much universally badder.
Most of the "bleeding hearts" (for the countries of others), assume once you break down the "corrupt government" a functional democracy will follow.
The never bother wondering whether a functional democracy is even possible at that scale, nor to ponder the other places they've turned into hell-holes with their interventions.
Nor do they care much about sovereignty, the idea that people should fix those things for themselves, and not have some third parties (with their own ideas, culture, and interests) impose a solution.
>Being told how many children you can and cannot have is not something anyone would rather live with.
At the individual level maybe. But having too much population grown in your country is not something "anyone would rather live with" either.
I call rubbish.
Corruption is corruption and nobody ever accepts it as 'part of our historical culture'.
Having a corrupt government official take your home because they want to build a mall is pretty much Universally bad.
Being thrown in a concentration camp because of your religion not something anyone wants.
Having to bribe officials to get where you want is not something anyone wants.
Being told how many children you can and cannot have is not something anyone would rather live with.
I accept that people will accept differing levels of surveillance etc. - but in the end there are universal issues here.