China’s Middle Class Chafes Against Maze of Red Tape

China’s middle class — wired, ambitious and worldly — is increasingly unwilling to tolerate such obstacles, the vestiges of a capricious Mao-era bureaucracy that still holds sway over most of the important aspects of people’s personal lives. For many educated city dwellers, it is red tape, more than news media censorship and heavy-handed propaganda, that serves as a grinding reminder of the Communist Party’s dominion over their lives. “The government isn’t there to make our lives easier,” Ms. Li said. “They’ve set up all those rules so the people are easier to control.”

The venn diagram of oligarchy and police state is pretty much a circle. And Oligarchs only care about restrictions on capital. Now that China is developing a middle class, heavy handed bureaucracy is far more unwelcome.