It's a couple of days old, but Imagethief just stumbled on an article in the New York Times from Time's former Beijing bureau chief, Matt Forney, explaining how supportive of the government China's youth is, and why:

Many sympathetic Westerners view Chinese society along the lines of what they saw in the waning days of the Soviet Union: a repressive government backed by old hard-liners losing its grip to a new generation of well-educated, liberal-leaning sophisticates. As pleasant as this outlook may be, it’s naïve. Educated young Chinese, far from being embarrassed or upset by their government’s human-rights record, rank among the most patriotic, establishment-supporting people you’ll meet.

This is a situation that I often find myself explaining to people overseas, many of whom are surprised to hear that a government so negatively covered in US media can have so much popular support and trust at home. Worth a read.