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China Removes Four News Apps From Smartphone Stores To Tighten Control (scmp.com)
The mobile apps for four popular news apps in China, including the most popular aggregator, Jinri Toutiao, were removed from a number of Chinese smartphone app stores following reports of a crackdown by the country's media watchdog, local media reported on Monday. From the report: Toutiao, with about 120 million daily active users, was not available on the app stores of smartphone manufacturers Xiaomi and Meizu on Monday afternoon. The apps for Tiantian Kuaibao, Netease News and Ifeng News were also not found on Xiaomi. China's authorities have asked several of the country's smartphone app stores to remove the four apps by 3pm on Monday as part of efforts to "regulate order in the broadcasting environment," according to Chinese news portal Sohu.com. The apps will be removed for between three days to three weeks, with Toutiao being offline for the longest period, according to the Sohu report. [...] China has shut down more than 13,000 websites in the last three years as Beijing sought to tighten its grip on the internet.
On the other hand, they might not see the level of freedom we take for granted as either necessary or desirable.
I have first hand experience (anecdotal, I have to add) with what you suggested. Some years back, while I was still in university, I ended up sharing a flat with a Chinese. And throughout the period we lived together, we talked about this. And he said something along the lines of: "You can't have full freedom, if you want a country of 1.5 billion to work." So yeah, they believe it.
But people elsewhere don't understand the value of freedom and the problems of mass surveillance, so why do we think the average Chinese should? We seem to be too happy to give it all to Facebook and Google, for the ease of arranging events and GPS directions. If we don't care and we're "free," why should the Chinese, if they never were?