They're also really happy to be able to own an iPhone. It's a huge status symbol there. They couldn't care less about the "Western Internet". Baidu, Weibo, Alibaba, Taobao etc. are more than enough in everyday life.

Now when I talk to people from the lower classes, they are bitter and tell me that, yeah China progressed, but their life is worse. The gap has increased between the rich and the poor and I don't think China is a great role model in term of progress.

I have a hard time understanding why people value stuff over freedom.

This you can't really say, can you? :(

But he won't be able to become a dictator. The loophole which Indira Gandhi used to form Emergency was removed and there is little chance that someone like her will be born, go to the top of a national party, win election and then form a coup.

Our armed forces are controlled by the President who, usually is voted from the outside, she ain't just a rubber stamp. Plus, not to mention, we don't have a democracy, we have an oligarchy, the politicians own businesses everywhere and the big business houses own all political parties so even if we became a dictatorship, the big business houses will be the ones to lose, at least one of them and that's all it takes to form a coup to kill the dictator.