There's a massive cultural shift though, at lease from where I stand (Europe). US kinda like the idea of free speech. China doesn't. I had chat with Chinese people that went all anxious after they started to emit the slightest critic about their country. USA are probably tapping into everything since 20 years but so far it didn't turn into a way to shut off or kill people.

> I had chat with Chinese people that went all anxious after they started to emit the slightest critic about their country.

They are wrong, but it's a common misbelief. China government wants to censor posts that initialize collective action, not criticism. See this quantitive study from Harvard[0].

[0]: https://gking.harvard.edu/publications/how-censorship-china-...

China likes to aggressively censor pretty much everything that even remotely criticizes the party or its history.

"A Chinese star TV anchor is facing "severe punishment" over jokes he made about Mao Zedong, state media report. A video of Bi Fujian singing a parody song at a private banquet and insulting the former Chinese leader in strong language was posted online in April."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33844095

Allow me some thin paranoia, if people start criticizing, they're halfway through organizing collective action.