But strong nations don't need to do that. Weak nations do. Russia is actually stronger than China here, because Russia doesn't feel like they have to stop all criticism.
> The law, which critics say is reminiscent of Soviet-era legislation used to target political dissidents, stipulates fines of up to 100,000 roubles (£1,155) for “indecent” online posts that demonstrate a “blatant disrespect for society, the country, Russia’s official state symbols, the constitution, or the authorities”.
Perhaps I should have said that, while China and Russia are both very concerned about their image inside the country (showing that they have some fear of their own population, perhaps), China is much touchier about its image outside the country.
Russia's GDP is about 2017USD$ 1.7 T.
China's is 2017USD$ 12.2 T.
Companies traditionally aren't in the habit of doing favors for inconsequential entities. And for non-energy multinationals, Russia is generally more trouble than it's worth.
GDP/person: China $8,609, Russia $11,805. It's complicated to compare these two countries. China has a much larger economy so they have a bigger pool of money to spend, but then they have less per person. But both countries have huge poor groups.
A better explanation: China is much more unstable than Russia, and revolution is a much more dangerous and consequential threat.
The major issue is that the mythos of the Chinese state has always required a unified China, and unifying such a large, heavily populated country is difficult.
They also likely feel “victimized” as losers of the Cold War... (though wrongly).
China however lost multiple time (in history) against "inferior", cruel or "dumb" enemies because of internal unrest. Those lost caused part of their territory to be under the rule of foreigners for multiple years, decades even in some cases.
Nationalism worked great for liberalism in the 18th century, but now it seems it became a tool for any government.