They never really covered how they could ensure that the responses they collected were truthful. I can believe most similar surveys targeting the US, because we've had the first amendment since... forever. The ability to criticize our government in nearly any shape or form has been hard coded into us. It took billions and careful planning to get internal propaganda to work. And on top of that, us here in the US hasn't really truly dealt with widespread instability, so it doesn't take much for people to have a negative view of the government.

In contrast:

Although state censorship and propaganda are widespread in China, these findings highlight that citizen perceptions of governmental performance respond most to real, measurable changes in individuals’ material well-being. Satisfaction and support must be consistently reinforced. As a result, the data point to specific areas in which citizen satisfaction could decline in today’s era of slowing economic growth and continued environmental degradation.

For Cunningham, it’s important not to forget that many in China are only a generation removed from an era of chronic food shortages and significant social and economic instability. “Relative perspective is always important, as China is still a developing country,” he said.

“We tend to forget that for many in China, and in their lived experience of the past four decades, each day was better than the next,” Saich added. “Our surveys show that many in China therefore seem to be much more satisfied with government performance over time, despite rising inequality, corruption, and a range of other pressures that are the result of the reform era.”

So yea, even if the average Chinese citizen sees through the propaganda and realizes that their government might be doing human rights abuses and they are missing on freedoms others enjoy they'd probably still say they're satisfied with the CCP because of what many have experienced in the past.

If you'd lived a good portion of your life dealing with unstable governments and constant famine and then suddenly the CCP came in and stabilized everything at the cost of a significant chunk of freedoms, would you criticize them?

Doesn't mean it's right, I'm also not saying it's right for the US to intervene at all. China and its people have a road ahead and they should absolutely head down it unencumbered. But, they're still behind the times, the CCP is not something to revere, worship or promote.

Capitalism absolutely needs to die, but the CCP format/flavor is not the way forward either. The rights and freedoms sacrifice makes sense for the Chinese people with the expanded context of their history from before the CCP, but the same sacrifice makes no sense for another country like the US.

We should be able to move towards a socialist style country without needing to sacrifice privacy and freedoms