This modern (shall we say?) form of subtle control is contributing to the creation of a compliant population. The Chinese state is edging towards a dictatorship that is in some ways pain free, one in which controls run smoothly and in which people stay in line more or less by their own doing because it makes sense to do so. Various forms of brute control have been or are being rolled back, such as detention in education through labour. Subtle controls work well enough so that brute controls are less necessary.
