> Nobody in the tech community cared until the dragonfly thing came up and they all went on wikipedia looking for reasons to hate China
Speak for yourself. I've been working on privacy projects like TOR for years and have been critical of the GFW since long before dragonfly.
>have to wonder, if China were less successful, and the people were poorer, would they be less upset
Nope. Probably even more upset. People aren't happy about North Korea either and North Koreans aren't rich. I'm happy Chinese citizens are doing better financially. I'm disappointed in their oppressive government.