(In case someone missed the reference: this is a comparison to Mao's Hundred Flowers campaign, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Flowers_Campaign https://en

(In case someone missed the reference: this is a comparison to Mao's Hundred Flowers campaign, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Flowers_Campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Flowers_Campaign. People were spurred to speak their minds freely, but, after a few years, punished for dissenting.)