> If the Chinese populous don't like any of the governments additions, then those users can grab the binaries / source code directly and roll their own customisations.
Indeed. I did consider that when I made my post but came to the conclusion that China would have an impossible job blocking every PPA and tar-ball mirror.
And even if they do manage that, then people will just redistribute it offline once one guy has downloaded the content via his proxy / VPN.
If the repos are accessible.