!
One could argue North Korea belongs in this group as China has a vested interest in seeing it remain a communist buffer to S Korea and the USA and without China propping it up it would’ve fallen by now.
You could, but it’s not actually occupied by China. They have their own comic book villain in charge.
Didnt @RBE recently say that we’re probably living more in Huxley’s world than Orwell’s. Good point there.
Most people miss it because it’s only mentioned in passing, but Orwell’s world incorporated both an oppressive dictatorship and an ‘open prison’. In 1984, the plebs are simply ignored by the government because they’re deemed (correctly) to be incapable of mounting any serious challenge to the status quo. They’re kept docile by the simple expedient of feeding them stupid entertainment and letting them indulge in whatever base pleasures keep them occupied. It’s only the intelligent and/or the middle classes who are subjected to brutal oversight.
I know I’ve been saying it. The twist is that in F451, people chose to give up books and reading, with only a few stragglers left behind. These days it’s as though half or maybe even far less of the populace, driven by powerful tech/media/political elite are making the choices for the lot of us. 
Hmm. Is it the oppressive dictatorship that fosters the attitude of the plebes to be docile, or the people who choose to submit themselves to being oppressed? Or is it like a giant wheel, with each part contributing to its moving forward? I’ll have to go back and read the books more carefully.
