China and Russia for that matter kind of do not care about the anti-Xi/Putin stuff, so long as it doesn’t turn into ANY form of action. But as soon as there is the slightest whiff of a movement, it gets locked down hard.

There was a group in China about a year back that were living in the mountains and constantly posting about how they didn’t need the government and they were never going to work again. And that continued for a long while until they started to get popular and started to get very provocative in their language and trying to get others to join, they were shut down with little explanation from them other than they were strongly compelled to stop.

There are many Taoist/Buddhist hermits and back to the land folks in China and while it is technically illegal, the government doesn’t bother them and some even get a bit of financial help at times, that is because they do not actively rock the boat of power. To those at the top, those people are seen as harmless and they know it would look bad to take them down, so they are left alone. Same situations but one side decided to project their position, the other is quiet and does not proselytize their position.