Not surprised.
The Chinese have seen many changes over the last decades, how western their cities have become, they do not want the old communism.
I watched a Chinese TV program on Netflix. It is set in a fictional Chinese city. The show is a cop/soap opera.
One of the cops in the special investigative unit always wears a cross.
This was a very popular show coming out of China but syncdicated all over Asia. Another wears USA themed T shirts. I detected no strong propaganda flavor.
Being so popular one wonders the messages the government wanted to convey. The IMDB says it had 2 billion hits for an online blurb. That it 2 billion.
The show depicts people pretty much like westerners and Japanese and Koreans. Like you say, they are not under the old communism.
The old communism will be forced on the Chinese again.