How far did the CCP control China through fear?

After taking full control of China in 1949 Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had taken full control of China. Many arguments have a firm belief that the CCP had the people in fear. They used different and certainly a couple extreme methods. They used the Laogai which seemed to be humane in theory but wasn’t in practice, the 3 and 5 Anti Movements; which targeted the capitalist middle class and the use of Registration in order for the people to obtain accommodation and work. Nonetheless there are arguments which showed that the CCP wasn’t completely keeping the country in fear to control China by Land Reform; as most of the population was roughly 80% peasants, Mao acquired the Land and handed it to the peasants. Another way the CCP didn’t the Chinese in fear was the more social use of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The PLA were seen as heroes of communism after winning the Korean War they were used within China by building bridges, roads within the countryside etc. They weren’t completely an ‘inhumane’ government.
Speaking on the Laogai, this was Mao’s prison Camps and it was a cruel place to be sent. In theory, the Laogi was not a place of “punishment” but a place of “re-education” on the idea of communism to those who opposed Mao’s principles and ideologies. So in order to “help” them, the camps were there to help them see a better understanding of Chairman Mao and the communist civilisation. However, this deemed to be the absolutely opposite in reality. The meanest and the harshest treatment imaginable were applied to “dehumanise” those who opposed. Statistics show that 10million people were held each year during Mao’s reign. More than 25million died during Mao’s period and by the time Mao had passed away, almost 10,000 camps were found across China. This suggests that the CCP kept a lot of people in fear because it terrified the whole population as most people didn’t want to end up at a dreadful camp where you were tortured to death. This