The 2008 Sichuan Earthquake had far-reaching effect. At the time I was working for state assemblyman in Queens and though outside of his district downtown Flushing had incidents between Falong Gong practioners and allegedly hired by CCP thugs, sometimes sending Falong Gong practioners manning a table in downtown Flushing to be hospitalized. I only know this because practioners came into the district office and showed me Chinese language video clip of a news report about how the Chinese consulate in NYC hired these thugs to silence these Falong Gong practioners who were being scapegoated by the CCP (I was already aware of the scapegoating, and thought nonsensical that not believing in the CCP enough caused the schools to collapse). CCP has never been anything but a totalitarian dictatorship, they allow closed elections within their state unions but similar to Iran only candidates approved by the ruling elite can run, so it's a very illiberal democracy where a heterodox like Bernie Sanders or Milei in Argentina would be prevented from ever being a candidate for office and it's been a characteristic that isn't new to Xi's leadership but a constant.
The 2008 Sichuan Earthquake had far-reaching effect. At the time I was working for state assemblyman in Queens and though outside of his district downtown Flushing had incidents between Falong Gong practioners and allegedly hired by CCP thugs, sometimes sending Falong Gong practioners manning a table in downtown Flushing to be hospitalized. I only know this because practioners came into the district office and showed me Chinese language video clip of a news report about how the Chinese consulate in NYC hired these thugs to silence these Falong Gong practioners who were being scapegoated by the CCP (I was already aware of the scapegoating, and thought nonsensical that not believing in the CCP enough caused the schools to collapse). CCP has never been anything but a totalitarian dictatorship, they allow closed elections within their state unions but similar to Iran only candidates approved by the ruling elite can run, so it's a very illiberal democracy where a heterodox like Bernie Sanders or Milei in Argentina would be prevented from ever being a candidate for office and it's been a characteristic that isn't new to Xi's leadership but a constant.