China is a huge place, and I would agree with your definition of "erratic control" in the context of various non-industrial provinces...
That said, the reality is that most of what you are referring to is representative of "controlled dissent." It's not "martial law" or some kind of truly orwellian mind-control scheme... it's just the product of very tightly controlling the country's written/perceived history, with a significant focus on nationalizing "information" (ie, parse everything that comes in and out of the country via digital channels).
Once you see the way they handle the lesser-publicized issues (ie, Uighur/Han unification, Tiananmen, and Taiwan), you begin to realize that they do have the power to whitewash history on a generational scale, and considering that (as you mentioned) they take a fairly lax enforcement approach toward the "general populous," I'm curious to know what perceived ideological threats their best and brightest are working to mitigate. And how many people have simply "disappeared."
That said, the reality is that most of what you are referring to is representative of "controlled dissent." It's not "martial law" or some kind of truly orwellian mind-control scheme... it's just the product of very tightly controlling the country's written/perceived history, with a significant focus on nationalizing "information" (ie, parse everything that comes in and out of the country via digital channels).
Once you see the way they handle the lesser-publicized issues (ie, Uighur/Han unification, Tiananmen, and Taiwan), you begin to realize that they do have the power to whitewash history on a generational scale, and considering that (as you mentioned) they take a fairly lax enforcement approach toward the "general populous," I'm curious to know what perceived ideological threats their best and brightest are working to mitigate. And how many people have simply "disappeared."