In China everything the people read, even on the internet, is controlled by propagandists. Therefore, they see their economy through rose colored propaganda. They have a favorable view as there is nothing on which to base any other view.
It’s like the lottery. People buy lottery tickets because they have seen interviews with lottery winners. But do just a 30 second interview with all the losers, run them continuously 24/7 and for most big lotteries they would run almost a decade. People still buy lottery tickets, because they have almost no competing information describing the whole picture.
The freer the information, the more negative the view respondents will have about the economy. Too much money printed. Too much crony capitalism. Too much debt. That’s almost universal and world-wide.
No, the state is not nearly as all powerful as the moron left likes to believe it is. The Chinese population is not stupid and they know how to find out what's happening. Their reported 'happiness' may either be that they see themselves as being a lot better off than before because of the huge shift there toward freedom, or they're not in the habit of being honest w/ foreign pollsters. Either way, info is like the economy. It can not be managed by the State for long.