About China, and I’ll try to word this as unbiased as I can, from what I’ve seen it’s not a state known for complete freedom of speech. In my country, some Chinese critics are harassed by “Chinese police stations” or radical lovers of china who seem to believe any critic is a death threat. In contrast, people from the country I’m from openly defy and mock ourselves (a bit too much if you ask me).

I'm not yothos, but the "freedom of speech" you guys have in the west should more accurately be called "the jester's privilege". You are allowed to say whatever you want, until what you are saying genuinely threatens the state or capital, in which case you get into legal trouble.

I've seen the police crack down on protests with my own eyes at my own university. I've seen the independent student media outlet we had get silenced, and have its editorial team disbanded and replaced because they criticized the university's policies. What does it matter that the students can mock their country and university when the actual avenues of power we had were suppressed? We know that nothing we say truly matters and we are powerless. So we laugh. We mock. It is the soothing balm we use to cope with the pain of knowing that our future is fucked. Our planet will burn and our societies will be overrun by fascists.

In China on the other hand, the government simply listens to the people, which is evident from both the speedy development of the country, the application of mass line methods and high approval ratings of the government. Having consistently high approval ratings of a government across decades is not something any western "democracy" could ever hope to brag about.