Well, there are some things different and some things the same. Every society censors some information, it is just part of state power. Examples of things that both Western nations and China censor are things like material support for their designated terrorist groups, fraudulent commercial communications, bomb making instructions, information tools that could be too helpful for producing bioweapons, the identities of personnel in intelligence, the identities of undercover police, the precise security arrangements for the head of state, etc.
Also worth noting that censorship serves a dual purpose. Censorship can be bypassed both inside China and outside it, but because it's overwhelmingly administered through the internet the intelligence services will get a bunch of pings if you're trying to access information they care about. Censorship serves a secondary purpose of making you much more likely to generate intelligence if you go searching for XYZ restricted information.
I am not familiar with how enforcement is done in China, but in the US it's common for the intelligence agencies to detect someone through search patterns (e.g. "what is the schedule of Joe Biden" "where can I buy a pressure cooker" "purchase micronised aluminium" will absolutely get you flagged somewhere if you google it and actually click on the links/engage normally), and then either go straight to entrapment if it can get through court, or engage in parallel construction if it can't (most common method is just convincing a cop's CI to give a tip about the suspect, which can trigger digital searches with a warrant) and then move to entrapment. I imagine in China they don't bother with parallel construction, there is no legal fiction that they're not surveilling you, so they can just convict you for their equivalent of conspiracy based on the digital evidence as presented to the Judge.
Also worth noting that censorship serves a dual purpose. Censorship can be bypassed both inside China and outside it, but because it's overwhelmingly administered through the internet the intelligence services will get a bunch of pings if you're trying to access information they care about. Censorship serves a secondary purpose of making you much more likely to generate intelligence if you go searching for XYZ restricted information.
I am not familiar with how enforcement is done in China, but in the US it's common for the intelligence agencies to detect someone through search patterns (e.g. "what is the schedule of Joe Biden" "where can I buy a pressure cooker" "purchase micronised aluminium" will absolutely get you flagged somewhere if you google it and actually click on the links/engage normally), and then either go straight to entrapment if it can get through court, or engage in parallel construction if it can't (most common method is just convincing a cop's CI to give a tip about the suspect, which can trigger digital searches with a warrant) and then move to entrapment. I imagine in China they don't bother with parallel construction, there is no legal fiction that they're not surveilling you, so they can just convict you for their equivalent of conspiracy based on the digital evidence as presented to the Judge.