People that wish to stay in China at all costs and defend it unconditionally tend to have a few skeletons hidden in the closet.

Hmmmm, in my experience (8 years or thereabouts in China in various places, and fluent in mandarin and some cantonese) it is mostly those without a degree and no prospects for getting a girl/wife back home who cling to the place like a barnacle to a sea pier and defend the place. Whether they actually have any rattling bones in a closet somewhere, is another matter indeed.