> I, and everyone I know wants the Chinese, and all people, to succeed, and enjoy prosperous self-determination.
You can't believe how many times I've encountered a phrase similar to this one. But 9 out of 10 times, upon closer examination, they're just empty words at best, blatant lies at worst.
If you're shocked by what I said above (i.e. you're thinking "wtf is he blabbering about?"), allow me to explain.
Chinese have different primary values. The things they value most are unity and collectivism. "Freedom" as the ultimate virtue is a western ideology. The Chinese have the concept of "too much freedom", i.e. a lack of social responsibility. "$WESTERN_COUNTRY is too free" is a literal phrase that I've heard from Chinese students in Europe several times. I've witnessed with my own eyes early 2020 how people in China largely voluntarily (without coercion) followed government advice on social distancing and wearing masks. Chinese now watch with amazement how people in the west refuse to social distance and refuse to wear masks under the guise of "freedom".
You should read this essay by a Chinese national: "How [Chinese] liberals lost of a generation of young Chinese" — https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/erCJHZVLEtnZ4wWbkgij3g Google Translate does a decent enough job (note: phrases like "year 18" mean 2018)
This essay says that for a long time time, the CCP was unpopular in China. So much that CCP members don't care mentioning their membership because that might raise eyebrows. There has always been propaganda and censorship, but censorship can merely silence, not change, what people feel in their hearts. The mainstream opinion was that western liberal democracy is better.
However there's been a remarkable change the past 10 years or so. Party popularity has been soaring, and people are now increasingly confident that China's own system is better. Why? Because people found out the government actually does a pretty good job. Many people visited foreign countries and found out that western democracies aren't as good as they thought. They've witnessed the anti-corruption campaigns that have been going on since the early 2010s, are bearing fruit. Life in many Chinese cities is becoming increasingly better.
A major change occurred in 2020. People thought China would collapse because of COVID, and they thought western democracies would be able to control the virus, because of freedom of information. That's the narrative that Chinese liberals sold. But then they witnessed the opposite: western countries failed to control the virus and the Chinese government did a great job. This completely discredited Chinese liberals. Now, Chinese are more proud of their own government than ever.
This increase in satisfaction isn't merely opinion. A 15-year study by Harvard has shown this trend of increasing satisfaction as well. In the last year of the study, 2016, Harvard measure 92% satisfaction rate with the central government. Another study in 2020 by York University measured 98%, and the study concluded that this major bump was caused by China's good handling of COVID.
Kishore Mahbubani is an ex-Singapore diplomat, ex-UN Security Council head. He says the following about China: the past 30 years are literally the best out of 3000 years. Chinese have got more freedom and more prosperity than they have ever had in their history. Why wouldn't they be happy about this?
Back to your "I support the Chinese people [and only hate their government]". The Chinese people support their government. So where does that leave you?
Most people that I tell this story to, will immediately label me a "propagandist", "CCP shill", etc. I hope you're not one of them, because those people are the very embodiment of how they're blatantly lying about "supporting the Chinese people": they only support Chinese people until Chinese people disagree with them.