@Spartan_418: It depends what you mean by “widespread”.
Do many people have VPN's in China? Yes.
Is it more than, say, 1% of the population? Not even close.

@naryanrobinson:Oh, I almost forgot:
6. A few months ago they started forcing all children to go to school.
Many minority (non-Han) families home-schooled their children,
to avoid mistreatment from teachers and falsified history lessons.
This caused a palpable tension bump in my city.
The CCP's usual method is to flood native culture/people with Han,
on all sides, all the time, forcing it on them until nothing else is practical,
then gradually smother and extinguish it until only Han remains.

The speed at which radical new laws are coming into effect here in China is increasing.
There are big things bubbling under the surface. You can feel it.
If you ask me, it's because the CCP is running out of money.
In the past 12 months alone,
1. They've cracked down on gaming hard,
because it's devastating productivity, male students' scores, and the economy.
2. They've raised the retirement age.
(The most shocking one to me personally.)
3. They've aggressively ramped up seizing Chinese billionaires' and celebrities' assets,
(and arresting/censoring them and their shows online. Shows disappearing like crazy).
4. Starting tomorrow, Sep 1st, they're requiring all students stay in school 2 extra hours.
This is framed as education aid, but is actually to enable parents' longer working hours.
5. Last month they totally banned all private education institutions.
Every single one of the thousands of private schools nationwide... gone overnight.
This seems less about money and more a huge step towards information control,
but it's another shocking move nonetheless.
The Chinese yuan is artificially pegged to the dollar,
so the economy will be peachy-perfect until the moment it's dead,
but high schoolers and uni students here can feel a discomfort and tension growing.

Treating workers like humans is communism and therefore evil.