... who have more in common with each other than they do with any of their constituents.
The important part of any internet law, and any country's level of freedom/privacy on the internet isn't measured by the bland statements policy makers make to the press, but in the content of the laws that actually get passed. I'm sure you could find two statements from Hitler and JFK about how they love kids - doesn't mean they are equivalent.
Personally I find it disheartening. I think the Chinese are copying key aspects of the American Media/propaganda model because it's been demonstrated as so damn effective...
I remember in Poland and Croatia people were so scared that a common sentiment was basically wanting to ban all muslims.. you know.. just-to-be-on-the-safe-side
So while yes, this is a scapegoat, people in China are actually scared of the terrorists.. it's bizarre
Also, I don't think China's position has anything to do with the peoples "fear" this is related to the governments position of trying to maintain it's power by staying on the right side of the information asymmetry the internet affords.
As far as we know the country isn't infiltrated by Al Qaeda or the IS (like Europe and maybe the US)
As for your second point, sure - a perfect climate to clamp down on the internet some more without upsetting anyone.
Wikipedia: Recent incidents include the 1992 Urumqi bombings,[9] the 1997 Ürümqi bus bombings,[7] the 2010 Aksu bombing,[10] the 2011 Hotan attack,[11] 2011 Kashgar attacks[12] and the 2014 Ürümqi attack.[13]
Croatia was actually the only (border-) EU country that allowed passage to all refugees (I'm guessing thats what you're referring to) and there was definitely no anti-muslim sentiment or any sort of call to ban all muslims.
Don't think anybody ever thought about anything like that at all in Croatia - people still remember their own armed conflict a decade or so ago.
You probably mean the countries from the Visegrad group (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) - where some parts of the government (in especially Slovakia) were proposing to only accept Catholic refugees (which is also not the same as saying they'd ban all muslims).
When the gov't agreed to accept several thousand refugees several people told me they thought it was a horrible idea and that they don't need these communities in Croatia.
Its true that most refugees are trying to make it to Germany - but if Germany closes its doors, they wouldn't get stuck in the immediate neighbouring countries - they'd get returned to the point of where they were first registered in the EU. Since Greece is not doing that at all - this would for most of them now be Croatia. Which is for example what Slovenia is preparing for (google "border razor wire slovenia") under the pretence of "defending" the Schengen border (even though its just something like 70km through Slovenian territory from Croatia to Austria). So granting passage for Croatia is not an easy decision to make.
You dismiss granting passage as something any country could do - yet Croatia is the only willing/open corridor now since Hungary has closed it doors completely and they're clearly not welcome in Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia who openly oppose any EU quotas. No word on any of that in Croatia - who has already started building shelters for the EU quotas and has indeed already accepted refugees wanting to stay there (even though most of them want to continue on to Germany).
None of these have anything to do with your original claim that "Croatia wanted to ban all muslim". In addition to what I wrote I'd go as far as to say that Muslims as a religion are not such an oddity in Croatia - yes, its a predominantly Christian country but it does have a small and thriving muslim community inherited from its close ties with the neighbouring (predominantly muslim) Bosnia (made even closer by the fact that Bosnia and Croatia were mostly fighting on the same side in the last Balkans war against ex-Yu/Serbia).
"Several people told me" is just not a credible reference. Whereas its easy to google and confirm what I've tried to correct you with - again I think you're confusing Croatia with Slovakia (google Slovakia in relation to accepting only Christian refugees).
So I'm open to being wrong about Croatia's attitude to having a immigrant community of muslims - it's just not what I saw.
"Its true that most refugees are trying to make it to Germany - but if Germany closes its doors, they wouldn't get stuck in the immediate neighbouring countries "
No, the Germans would never close the door per se, they'd just stall and delay things till the bordering countries end up having huge camps while the famous EU bureaucracy does it's thing. Macedonia was clever and quickly managed to get them all across the country and dump it off on the next guy. Croatia pulled off something similar.
And ofcourse Croatians aren't painting all muslims with the same brush - sorry if I gave that impression. But one group, the one they seemingly don't want, comes from a land of boogeymen full of religious extremism Al Qaeda and the IS while the other is their war-buddies/neighbors (and as far as I know hasn't yielded a single terrorist - though with all the money coming from Saudi and Turkey that may change..)
"When changes in technology hinder law enforcement’s ability to exercise investigative tools and follow critical leads, we may not be able to identify and stop terrorists who are using social media to recruit, plan, and execute an attack in our country."
One of the above is from Li Shouwei, the deputy head of the Chinese parliament's criminal law division. The other is from the US FBI director.