The folks who would provide insight to China would be the citizens of China. If you buy the premise that China is a totalitarian state, a consequence is that yo

The folks who would provide insight to China would be the citizens of China. If you buy the premise that China is a totalitarian state, a consequence is that you can’t have a public, nuanced discussion with its citizens, because they may be victimized by the state. So your only source of insight would be history and private conversation. The USSR is obviously a different situation.