Ok so let me counter your anecdotal evidence with some anecdotal evidence of my own.

As a western person who has visited China, there are a HUGE amount of people that are embarrassingly pro western. This is not really a controversial thing to say if you have been to China you see it everywhere. People will say I am lucky for being from Ireland they will show me far more respect...it very much felt to me like they had a Hollywood understanding of how western people are.

If you read Weibo...nothing...all of a sudden these people have no representation. Everything the west does is misguided and foolhardy and everything the CCP does is perfect.

Taiwan is right next door and is more culturally Chinese than China by a country mile, they have a strong democracy and don't seem to think they have to censor the crap out of their people.