The link and communication is always there and it is strong. I spent 12 years living/studying/working in the west, such experience is shared by millions of othe

The link and communication is always there and it is strong. I spent 12 years living/studying/working in the west, such experience is shared by millions of other Chinese in my generation. Most western media are freely accessible from China, e.g. BBC/CNN/Foxnews. Comparing today's China to eastern Europe back in the USSR days is not a good idea, e.g. did USSR encourage its youths to study in the west? China has been doing this in the last 39 years. It is also questionable whether the so called non-free-speech environment is the same here - not judging what people can/can not do in those old USSR days as I don't know anything about it, but you can openly criticise CCP in China as long as the criticism is not coordinated, I have been doing that for ages, never got into any trouble.