[BiteCode_dev]

If you ever visited China 20 years ago and now, you may have noticed the change in openness, though.

The first time I went, I was confined to limited areas, and had to be followed by a state appointed guide for my entire trip. I couldn't kiss my girlfriend in the street, it was considered bad behavior.

Now, I can just go alone, and where I please, and demonstrations of affection are not as frown upon. Women also seem have more freedom than before.

China was always a dictatorship, but I would say it looks more free that it used to be, at least from my very limited external point of view.

Now, China is still corrupted, with massive informational control. And it also became terribly polluted, and under systematic automatic surveillance, so I'm not sure it balances out, but it's not like there is an objective scale to those things.

[throwaway894345]

Waning traditional norms happened all cover the world, including in the west. I don’t think globalization was the driver.

[BiteCode_dev]

I would think that something happening all over the world would hint that globalization may be a factor.

[throwaway894345]

It might be a factor, but it probably has more to do with decades of exporting western values via media, Internet, etc.

[ectopod]

I travelled freely in China fourteen years ago. I paid cash everywhere. Nobody had a smartphone. I didn't feel surveilled. From my limited perspective it seems much less free now.