"This presents an interesting chicken and egg problem with circumvention software. How do you get the software in the first place if it's source of the software package is censored?"
apt-get install tor privoxy
I've been in countries where use of any method to circumvent state censorship is criminal, all known proxies are blocked, all proxifying/anonymising software websites are blocked, tor.eff.org is blocked and so on. But there are Debian mirrors hosted by the state funded university. No more censorship
That implies you have a choice of which OS to use which just isn't the case in China. Most people use a cyber cafe connection running on Windows XP. Most Chinese simply can't afford the cost of a computer of their own. Nor could they afford the cost of an internet connection of their own.
There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.