Its like Hillary walking into a working class kitchen for the first time.
They've been shielded from even critical support of China and other AES for so long they literally, not figuratively, literally cannot process that people exist that have beliefs that aren't Reddit Approved. They immediately assume it's bots or wumao. Human beings can't possibly hold these beliefs, so they must be Oriental hordes or actual robots.
See other comments, but I would suggest that statement is overly broad on it's own. There is a large liberal continent within the party, although they are still on their heels.
I see what you're getting at, but even the Bolsheviks formed a broad front with liberals, no? Not that that's a wholly comparable situation, but I'm sure the Party has its reasons, even if we aren't privvy to them.
Right, and if I bothered to read more theory/history I'd probably have some criticisms about that too. It is a necessary aspect of having a functioning socialist government while capitalist forces still reign supreme. It doesn't mean it's above me carefully analyzing it, rather than calling it fine and overlooking it.
Oh, naturally. It raised my eyebrows too the first time I learned of the Bolsheviks doing it, and I'd like to read more about it. Might help understand why the CPC took a similar course. Of course, Chinese sources would be better for that, but I haven't the faintest idea where to find them, much less in English.