I respect Cuba 1000x more than China.

I think the most telling indictment of the Chinese government is its failure to extend aid to its ideological allies abroad, whether that's Cuba or Kashmir. But when you're lifting 200M people at home out of poverty with industrial improvements and agricultural modernization, its hard to complain. Beijing has done an amazing job of not-getting-into-wars. More than the Russian Soviets managed by a long shot.

Unfortunately, they’re still a one-party state without free and fair elections.

You could say the same thing about California or Florida. What's annoying is that "one-party state" is held up as some kind of indictment without regard to how popular the party is. Like, I hate Texas politics, but I'm not naive enough to believe the state lacks a Republican majority. I'm not going to hold Cuba to a higher standard, simply because they're venerating Che Guevera instead of T. Boone Pickens.