<p><pre><code>   China believes that it imprisons people who are doing things that are harmful to its society.
</code></pre>
That's an assumption. Their actions seem to indicate it is far less about harm to society and more to do with harm to Governments "status quo".<p><pre><code>    I think your conspiracy theory about China's poor regions is fairly off the wall. Look at the mountains and rivers and see how there are not good shipping routes, etc.
</code></pre>
None of those things are insurmountable. And China has not been attempting to surmount them. Thus my point.