The quote does not belong to Plato, who believed the ideal state was a republic with a top-down hierarchy of philosopher kings, soldiers, and lower class producers. Plato is often accused by academics of propagating totalitarianism in his advocacy for a single ruling class without opposition.
Annie Lab found that the passage was likely to be taken from a 2015 essay by Zhang Xuezhong, an outspoken Chinese legal scholar who has criticized the political oppression and lack of rule of law in mainland China. Zhang’s essay was influential and cited by many others at the time.
Although his writing does not use the exact words and phrases found in today’s popular quote, the wording and structure of his expression parallel the passage entirely. An article written by a geography professor in Nanjing also reached the same conclusion about the quote’s origin.