Cope. I guess you had a different experience when you were there. I got asked about NATO, Russia/Ukraine, Iran/Israel, US Tariffs and saw it analyzed in CCTV also when revisiting earlier this year. CGTNs quality of analysis is way higher and objective than other (state) media.

What are topics that didn't make it past the censors in your opinion?

I'm not questioning that censorship is happening, it's just happening differently than in western societies. Classifying it as "way worse" is just your subjective experience