I have concluded that the Chinese controlocracy is the perfect dictatorship. It does not depend on commanding most people in their daily lives and is able to mostly rely on their acquiescence and self-censorship. But behind that façade of softness is the hard reality of as perfect control as is possible when control is needed, of ruthlessness, and of a totalitarian system’s care to let its capacity of control and unforgivingness be known to all.
