If it's that much crazier, why is it whenever I visited China it didn't seem crazy at all? Are they that good at hiding things from foreigners?

I should add that I don't stick to the expat bubble and I can understand Mandarin.

Reading China Daily and the Global Times, you also get stories about all the good things that happen in China. So it definitely seems more well balanced. Whereas the Western press seems to only focus on the negative and sensationalist pieces.