Many citizens, as opposed to just politicians, are happy to be surveilled, as long as it's ostensibly being used against people that they feel hatred for. That'

Many citizens, as opposed to just politicians, are happy to be surveilled, as long as it's ostensibly being used against people that they feel hatred for. That's a key difference in this case. The West may have an easier time fending this off, until the day some politician decides to frame the surveillance as a safeguard against a broad social group, e.g. a religion, race, or political affiliation, as opposed to the more nebulous category of just "criminals", in which case I'm afraid I don't have much reason to think the West would be any more immune to such societal crumbling than China is.