Chinese people are not just Americans without good internet access...
The Chinese propaganda/education/censorship system is set up to accommodate all levels of disbelief of propaganda - that's built in to the propaganda, too.
So there is the official line, then there's the unofficial official line - which is generated by being pessimistic relative to the official line.
If the official line is that 7 people died in a disaster, rumors will float around that it was really 70, and people hearing that will feel content, cause hey, 70 people is not a lot to pay for 20 years of good economic development. Since they're anchored by the official line, suspicions never jump to 7000 people died, 20k people had their lives destroyed, which may be the reality.
It's the same with corruption - if an official gets busted for embezzling, skeptics guess that his wife is still overseas with millions, he had a couple cars, mistresses - but now he got his due and will never get out of jail. But they never guess that he was the equivalent of a mob boss in his city, had peasants disappeared, isn't even actually serving jail time, etc. (because that story would never, ever be mentioned again.)
So, rumors slightly inflating the official line are allowed, even encouraged, since they strengthen that line. But rumors showing that the official line is totally fake are destroyed - any reporter who brings one up can look forward to a life in a small town working in a factory, no education for their child, and nobody would ever hear a word about it, anyway.
Great little rant, but provide some citation please. Which reporters are currently in re-education camps, and It's unheard of that an entire family is sent for re-education (unless the entire family committed a crime together), which makes me doubt most of what you've said.
Also which event are your referring to with the 70 (actually 7000) deaths?
It's funny you are railing against propaganda by writing propaganda, please inform your points with actual data.
well, tian an men is a good example. chinese people have an idea something happened, but no idea that possibly hundreds of people died.
also, i'm not talking about re-education camps. just messing with someone's hukou is enough to ruin their life - they'd no longer be able to work in the city they want to and their kid would not be able to go to school.
Well you raise Tiananmen, which is impossible to prove either way. But it is well known that people died amoung chinese (hence the massive emigration during and right after).
And now you've raised messing with Hukou, I hadn't heard of that happening, and again, you still haven't provided any sources for your info. I imagine it is extremely hard to mess with Hukou as you'd have to change birth records as well, Given china doesn't have a centralised system (for either birth or Hukou) records, it would be very complicated to achieve this.
The Chinese propaganda/education/censorship system is set up to accommodate all levels of disbelief of propaganda - that's built in to the propaganda, too.
So there is the official line, then there's the unofficial official line - which is generated by being pessimistic relative to the official line.
If the official line is that 7 people died in a disaster, rumors will float around that it was really 70, and people hearing that will feel content, cause hey, 70 people is not a lot to pay for 20 years of good economic development. Since they're anchored by the official line, suspicions never jump to 7000 people died, 20k people had their lives destroyed, which may be the reality.
It's the same with corruption - if an official gets busted for embezzling, skeptics guess that his wife is still overseas with millions, he had a couple cars, mistresses - but now he got his due and will never get out of jail. But they never guess that he was the equivalent of a mob boss in his city, had peasants disappeared, isn't even actually serving jail time, etc. (because that story would never, ever be mentioned again.)
So, rumors slightly inflating the official line are allowed, even encouraged, since they strengthen that line. But rumors showing that the official line is totally fake are destroyed - any reporter who brings one up can look forward to a life in a small town working in a factory, no education for their child, and nobody would ever hear a word about it, anyway.