[Knove]

Maybe my meaning is not clear enough. Let me give you an example.

Imagine a well-known person, just days after 911, publicly declaring that 911 was a great recovery operation.

[ookblah]

That person would get blasted and suffer the PR and economic consequences (like pulled sponsorships), but none of these "punishments" are state sanctioned. For the most part people are free to express what they believe.

Contrast this to China what do you think would happen? The irony of you bringing all this up as some kind of counterpoint is strange.

[seemack]

They would likely be roundly disagreed with people and that would be a perfectly normal interaction. It sounds like you're attempting to imply that the US would have responded in the same way as China but that's simply not true.