There's a difference in publishing classified content (which is what journalists do) and actually stealing that content (which is what whistleblowers usually do). AFAIK Assange did not steal anything but only published what he got.
I have seen officers making notes of how the tires are aligned so they know whether the car has been moved when they come by a second time. (Seen in DACH countries)
How would one know if the Chinese government was supported by the population or not, given that anyone expressing a contrary opinion is likely to be a thorn in the eye that is China's surveillance state?
_For instance Microsoft and Apple regularly update ntoskrnl.exe and mach_kernel respectively for security fixes, but it's unheard of that these updates ever compromised the boot process._
I had updates rendering my computer unbootable by messing up the MBR at least twice.