A smart authoritarian government will have these "free" zones as a pressure release valve:
- Most active dissidents jailed
- Active dissidents allowed to flee the country
- Somewhat active ones allowed to "flee the regime to the free-thinking zones far from government control"
If there was a genuine insurgency, as in Xinjiang and Tibet, the central government does get involved and stomps down hard.
天 (and probably meaning heaven where the gods live).
天 looks a bit like the picture postcards of Mount Fuji from various angles.
Let's say you're a teacher with known dissident tendencies. Boom. Suddenly the only place you can get work is one of these remote regions with lax control. Yes there is less government there, and you can even start a book club or something to read and discuss banned literature, and no one will bother you.
But try and get out because you're tired of rural life... and no place in the "mainland" will acept you. Or will only offer you menial jobs and unskilled labor.
This was a very widely and well-used tactic in the USSR. Can't see why China (or any other authoritatian state) wouldn't do the same. Especially China with their current state of surveillance tech.