I'm Chinese, and I've a lot of Chinese friends, and from my experience I'd say your friend actually changed his mind, as opposed to simply realizing he could speak freely.<p>There is an absolute dearth of real factual information on issues like Taiwan, democracy, and free movement within China , and practically everything comes from the government. The people generally distrust what the government tells them, but a lifetime of propaganda and misinformation takes it toll anyways - it's entirely likely your friend believed every word of what he said before.<p>I know many other Chinese who stubbornly refuse to face the facts even after they leave China, and are presented with a smorgasbord of verifiable, authentic facts. I know some who still continue to dismiss all of this as American propaganda - some people can't be helped.<p>I'm glad to see that your friend at least was able to figure things out for himself, instead of falling back to the bad Chinese habit of taking every criticism of the government as a grave insult to their race, and feeling the knee-jerk need to defend.