I grew up in Beijing and because of the affinity politics are more common topic there. It’s not that “open”, more like in private dinner party, inner circle friend hangout and more likely you can safely start those conversations with taxi drivers who blames the government all the time

The decision to keep people in dark to me is silly but the motivation was always rumors spreads too fast and too wild in China, so it makes sense for the ruler to fear even if they aren’t that dirty. What’s funny is the harder they try to cover up things the quicker it spreads “hey try search XXX it’s blocked”