It seems difficult to even have a discussion about CCP China in an open speech framework found outside of CCP China. The HN moderation on anything related to CCP China highlights this point [0]. If you cannot properly talk about the institutional challenges, you certainly cannot respond to them.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/chinamod

Censorship results in Preference Falsification, but doesn't actually effect change in the true preferences. It just makes them more subtle, and off the radar of officialdom.

That is an interesting take. But censorship is just one dimension. Propaganda is the other dimension. And if you substitute propaganda for advertising, and acknowledge that advertising can impact preferences, then surely propaganda can impact preferences as well.