Technology

And why should it need to suppress its own citizens, anyways?

The goal of the modern CCP is largely understood to be economic growth and steadily improving quality of life for domestic citizenry as a means of discouraging domestic upheavels (Tianamen and the Falun Gong lead movements being two classic examples).

That's going to come with some level of suppression due to friction between what any subset of the population believes/wants and what the central government believes/wants.

But this isn't - at it's root - a Socialist policy. It is a Confucian policy, with Socialist Characteristics.

The CCP has a 95.5% approval rate.

I hope you're joking.

There's no shortage of dissatisfaction with the CCP from within the Chinese polity. There's no shortage from within the CCP.

But what westerners don't like to talk about is the Mass Line approach employed by Chinese political leadership, which legitimately seeks to minimize conflict in pursuit of maximum economic benefits.

You don't have gonzo gunmen storming Beijing in hopes of winging President Xi, right now, because you don't have a public openly at odds with the mission of the chief executive.