Everyday people in China enjoy more liberty than in Canada, except guns, public political speech, and birthing more than two children while not a minority. They can drink in public, create public disturbances, litter, buy prescription type drugs without a prescription, buy any chemicals they want, blow up firecrackers at anytime outside of major cities, work without insurance, generally never file taxes, and others. And yes, they do have an expectation of freedom. My travels intersected with the travels of a group of Chinese I knew, and they left a remote border region early and were stopped at a checkpoint and searched. They roundly cursed the police out to their face for violating their rights. Incidentally, a few days later I went through the same checkpoint and they were ready to pounce, but when they asked my "interpreter" who I was and she answered "my husband" they immediately let us go.