>>339153
Not really an unspoken agreement, more like unspoken fear. Politics is only genuinely discussed IRL, behind closed doors and amongst close friends and family. Because the CCP will crack down on dissent, especially online.
When I was working there (I worked as a junior architectural consultant back then), I was close with 1 client who I would occasionally drink with, and he told me that you cant badmouth the government around untrusted strangers because they may report you to the government and they’ll either fine you, or if you have garnered a group of dissenters around your rhetoric, they’ll find some bogus reason to imprison you.
It’s really more of a keep your mouth shut if you have nothing good to say type of situation, which I find is one of the major flaws in their government. My country is already pretty draconian, but even we dont go that far in curbing criticisms of the government. People can still say fuck the government here lol.
Obviously when the top leadership is good and the economy is improving annually (like right now), this system of political censorship is bearable. But if a tyrant or an idiot takes power, then I can assure you it will be chaos. Which is why I dont think its right to call China’s rise a “Chinese Century”, their system of authoritarian governance doesnt have enough adequate checks and balances to sustain their rise, and it will quickly falter if a fool were to replace Xi as the new leader in the near future.