China is not a great society and never will be. It is a failure. That's all there is to it!

The fact that the country is arguably too large to ever contain just one form of society is also a point worth considering. There are Chinese people hoping of and working towards a better society, but that goal may very well never be achieved. I wish those people good luck, as there are good Chinese people out there that deserve better, but one has to be realistic.

As for the country as a whole, the fact that there seems to be wars of conflicting ideologies bubbling under the surface in recent times, that suggests that everything could go very pear-shaped at some point.

Things like:

Excessive censorship
Increased action taken against VPN usage and the freedom on the internet in general, such as the goal of purifying the internet.
The 'rumour crackdown' (which actually meant they were scared of their own getting caught, like Bo Xilai or the 'finish in 12 seconds guy' Lei Zhengfu)
The crackdown on corruption (actually, just the appearance of it)
The fight against Western/Universal values - Notice how references were recently made to Gorbachev and the collapse of the Soviet Union? (http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-memo-from-chinese-leaders-2013-8)

But when it comes to "Excellence in education", what really strikes me down is the excessive morality being enforced in educational institutions such as that rule in Wenzhou keeping boys and girls apart, that college in Guangdong that regarded dining together as 'public prostitution' (http://shanghaiist.com/2013/01/12/student-sex-illegal-prostitution.php), and more recently a high school in Zhongshan that insists that all female students must wear flesh coloured bras (who the hell does those inspections? - http://video.sina.com.cn/p/news/c/v/2013-10-19/082063037727.html) with the threat of marks being deducted.

At least on the opposite side of the scale, Huizhou university apparently still does a bikini contest or something. As for Sun Yat Sen university, they might have even taken it a little too far: (http://shanghaiist.com/2013/04/03/sun_yat-sen_university_wants_to_see_you_masturbate.php).

It seems that these examples of the preservation of old moral values and the crackdown on 'rumour spreading' means that there are old, senile people in the political masses that wish to desperately cling on to something that is rapidly disappearing before their eyes. They long for the days when things were never questioned, where people accepted their awful fate and those in the higher ranks could enjoy privilege that would not be seen nor questioned. They feel threatened and one has to wonder why.

In the past year or two, as far as greater society is concerned, it seems that things have taken a step or two backwards, which is quite worrying indeed. What's more, an increasingly large amount of young people appear to be brainwashed and willing to comply with just about everything, I remember going to an English corner, where it seems that when the original conversation inevitably went off course, it was the older guys (35+) that were argumentative and angry about the current state of affairs, whereas the younger people seemed to unconditionally defend everything.

The reasons behind what is happening are very complex, even trying to understand exactly is happening is very difficult and would require research to be conducted of a rather professional nature indeed. There are numerous conflicting possibilities such as the educated and informed middle-classes getting intolerant and demanding change, or the privileged middle-class wishing to protect what they have and resisting change that is demanded from the disillusioned working classes. I've always said that China is complicated, haven't I?

But it is not just China that is scared of change and people speaking out, the West is too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S86ZmqWLJeE - The world in general is quite a funny place at the moment imo.