Perhaps this hit a popular vein, as a (slightly) safer way of protesting against the govt for any perceived wrongs.
That's the fallacy of viewing China from a Western democracy's perspective, which certainly does not model China correctly. In China, being able to work at a state owned business is an honor, it means you have been sorted out of many competitors.
I wasn't really thinking of modern China, more like 40 or so years ago, but you would know the history of your country much better than I do.
In Australia, we used to have a fair number of State & Federal govt "businesses".
When I worked in the old PMG's Dept one of the work cars had a persistent rattle in one door.
We had sent it to "Auto Plant" section multiple times to no avail (it seems cars weren't really their "thing"-----ditchwitches, trucks, bulldozers, but not cars!).
Anyhow, the Guys decided to have a look themselves.
The fault was nothing much, & soon fixed, but they noticed while in there, that the door panel was a poor fit, & inside was scrawled "Reject or Commonwealth".
I guess I was thinking along those lines!
Everyone wants to work for the state, the pay is okay-ish (but the perks are awesome, overall you don't get a single cent less than working for a private business), no overtime, every labor force protection law is carried out by the letters (which is a privilege foreign owned businesses and state owned businesses have compared with private businesses), and the union actually has some power.
Also, unless some extreme events happened, nobody gets fired or demoted in a state owned business or at the government, which is certainly a contrast compared with private business, in a well paid private business they will fire common, non-essential workers once they are around 35~40 since their body will not allow them to work overtime that much and they start to develop diseases. So they are forced to either work for a low pay business or as a contractor, which has no protection.
If you know anyone working at a Chinese state business and is fucking around and is not fired, please let me know. I'm glad to have one more retirement option.
Most people in Oz who had never worked for the govt, believed that everybody who did, sat around doing nothing & drinking tea, served by a profusion of tea ladies.
We worked overtime, but got paid a fair rate for it, were hard to sack, had a few perks, but then again, were quite likely to be dispatched off to some desolate "cow town" thousands of km from home, for
"in the first instance" 3-6 months (maybe to be extended).
Sitting in such "temporary" appointments, we watched people in the mining industry being sent to less horrific places & making big money, whilst we were paid the same as in the city.