Australian police reported that Chinese students in the country have been forced to fake their own kidnappings to extort their families out of ransom payments. Eight ’virtual kidnappings’ have been reported this year. The scam involves a fraudster pretending to be from the Chinese embassy tricking students into believing that they have been implicated in a crime. They ask for fees in exchange.
This tactic wouldn't work if the citizens of China didn't actually view the CCP as a totalitarian nightmare.