在 Center for Advanced China Research 发布的 2020 年《党视》报告中，黎安友写到，

When Chinese see their government being criticized, for example, for mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic, they understand this not only as an attack on the national interest, as discussed above, but also as a denigration of their dignity as Chinese persons. When foreign denunciations of China’s Hong Kong policy or pandemic policies frame China as backward and uncivilized and seem to question the ability of Chinese people to competently manage their own affairs, even a Chinese person who is generally less inclined to accept the government propaganda line is likely to feel misunderstood and disrespected, and to experience these criticisms as ill-informed, stereotyped, and condescending. The Chinese person lives within the system and is part of it. He may not entirely like it, but he finds it functional—mundane rather than hellish. What we in the West often see as speaking up for the freedom of those who are not free to speak for themselves can come across to Chinese people as a denial of their competence and self-regard.

当中国人看到他们的政府被批评时，例如在COVID-19大流行病的管理不善，他们不仅将其理解为对国家利益的攻击（如上文所讨论的），而且将其理解为对他们作为中国人的尊严的诋毁。当国外对中国香港政策或疫情政策的谴责将中国定格为落后和不文明，似乎质疑中国人胜任管理自己事务的能力时，即使是一个普遍不太愿意接受政府宣传路线的中国人，也很可能感到被误解和不被尊重，并将这些批评体验为不了解情况、刻板和居高临下。中国人生活在体制内，是体制的一部分。他可能并不完全喜欢它，但他觉得它是运转的——乏味的而不是地狱一样的。我们西方人经常看到的为那些没有自由为自己说话的人的自由说话，对中国人来说可能是对他们能力和自尊的否定。