> * "Security Check" - Airport style security everywhere even on the subway.
Those were installed for the Olympics in 2008, I believe, when they feared terrorist attacks with foreign victims tarnishing their image. Nowadays they're still manned, but more security theater. I got all kinds of questionable stuff through the scanner, including an induction stove and a kitchen knife. No one ever bothered to take a closer look.
> * Cartoons - Authoritarianism was wrapped up and packaged with cute police cartoons
Police ≠ Authoritarianism. Most Chinese police officers are just doing completely ordinary police work.
> * Police everywhere. Literally everywhere
Sounds like you literally never left the touristy areas. China has fewer law enforcement personnel per inhabitant than most Western countries and heavy presence is limited to only a few important spots, like tourist attractions.
> * I saw a a mosque surrounded by security cameras. They didn't even hide its surveillance.
I've never seen a mosque without security cameras in Western Europe either. Mosques are prime targets for all kinds of hate crimes, so they're obviously going to use surveillance to protect themselves.
> * I was watched everywhere, except the great wall - but I was told cameras are being constructed there too. The feeling I had was like being in the forest of District 12 of the Hunger Games, I felt free there.
Next time you're in China, try taking the subway to somewhere out in the periphery and then just walk in a random direction for an hour or so. You're going to see a China that is much less surveilled, without police; a China that is dirtier, poorer and in a way more honest than what you see if you just tick off the famous tourist spots. You'll still be watched, of course; not by cameras, but by ordinary Chinese citizens who don't get to see a foreigner everyday.
I may be more sensitive to surveillance than others. I work in Tech, and I was fascinated by the sheer number of sheer number of Hikvision facial recognition cameras I saw.
Here is a picture of one set of cameras around the mosque, which did not seem normal to us. My cousin pointed it out and we laughed at the blatant violation of privacy we saw - saying they don't even hide the fact they are watching https://imgur.com/a/8WbFxBi
and I'm not sure its fair to say I stayed in tourist areas, I was an hour and a half outside of town, and we ventured into poor areas of SH.
I'm not sure how poor those areas really were if you still saw police and cameras everywhere.
Somewhere down here, for example: https://www.google.com/maps/place/31.031362,+121.472129/@31.... Not a lot of surveillance cameras in an area where people live next to open sewage ditches. (Those don't really stand out in the satellite image, so the location is only very approximate.)
Those were installed for the Olympics in 2008, I believe, when they feared terrorist attacks with foreign victims tarnishing their image. Nowadays they're still manned, but more security theater. I got all kinds of questionable stuff through the scanner, including an induction stove and a kitchen knife. No one ever bothered to take a closer look.
> * Cartoons - Authoritarianism was wrapped up and packaged with cute police cartoons
Police ≠ Authoritarianism. Most Chinese police officers are just doing completely ordinary police work.
> * Police everywhere. Literally everywhere
Sounds like you literally never left the touristy areas. China has fewer law enforcement personnel per inhabitant than most Western countries and heavy presence is limited to only a few important spots, like tourist attractions.
> * I saw a a mosque surrounded by security cameras. They didn't even hide its surveillance.
I've never seen a mosque without security cameras in Western Europe either. Mosques are prime targets for all kinds of hate crimes, so they're obviously going to use surveillance to protect themselves.
> * I was watched everywhere, except the great wall - but I was told cameras are being constructed there too. The feeling I had was like being in the forest of District 12 of the Hunger Games, I felt free there.
Next time you're in China, try taking the subway to somewhere out in the periphery and then just walk in a random direction for an hour or so. You're going to see a China that is much less surveilled, without police; a China that is dirtier, poorer and in a way more honest than what you see if you just tick off the famous tourist spots. You'll still be watched, of course; not by cameras, but by ordinary Chinese citizens who don't get to see a foreigner everyday.