I have actually traveled in mainland China, have you? A foreigner is under constant govt. scrutiny and any attempt to interact w/ the general public is closely monitored and has instilled palpable fear.
That might have been true at one time but not any more. I'm in China regularly with my job, at least once a month on average over the last 10 years. Nobody's followed me around or even paid much attention to me really. There are a lot of police, it seems like about 1 out of 10 Chinese are employed as cops but none have ever given me a second look.
For the most part the Chinese have fully embraced capitalism albeit with a communist bent. I think they feel a certain detached indifference about the communist government, it's just the way it is for them, there's nothing they can do about it so they go about their lives trying to eek out a better living for themselves and do their best not to get messed with by the government.
Nobody's following foreigners around nowadays, at least not peons like me. They've learned that round eyes bring money so they're not going to interfere with you trying to give some of it to them.
