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Isn't it the case that Chinese police don't need to be as visible because everyone fears what they can do, and doesn't commit crimes? A bit like how Iran has to send in military force to kill 50k protestors, but the UK can just spread a few messages that people will be arrested, and then they don't protest.

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I doubt it.

As near as I can tell, there are essentially 2 kinds of laws; laws that people agree with and laws that they don't.

For the second type, governments often have trouble enforcing them consistently so they often try to compensate by making the punishments harsher (eg mandatory minimum sentencing). As near as I can tell, that tends to fail miserably.

Our government here has been shooting people in the streets and that hasn't stopped protesters from pouring out.

When you see a bunch of people peacefully following laws the most likely explanation is that they just think those laws are reasonable.

I think the issue there is just that people in the UK have less immediate cause to protest than people living under the Iranian regime. The idea that British people are more afraid of their police than Iranians seems a bit wacky.

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