Internally, very. They spend more on domestic “harmony” than on the military; polarization and bottom‑up mobilization are stifled. They export the Great Firewall model to Belt‑and‑Road partners. We don’t compete on censorship; we deliver — better pandemic response, better anti‑deepfake systems, better growth. Their blind spot is that censorship also buries true public‑interest journalism (e.g., Dr. Li Wenliang).