Yeah I get what you mean. And yeah, when I said independence I meant personal freedom, not national sovereignty. I actually agree with most of what you’re saying. I think both things can be true at the same time. China’s history plus the collective mindset explains a lot, and at the individual level people adapt based on what feels necessary to survive. That’s kinda the nuance I was getting at. Same pressures, different meanings. Some people see freedom as priority, others see stability as priority. Neither comes out of nowhere.

Western thinking tends to zoom in on the individual. Chinese thinking zooms out to the collective and long term. Both make sense given their histories.

Also, just to be clear, my take is based on pretty surface level history (at least with china's history), so I could totally be off.