What I mean to emphasize is that net net, one expects more of the semblance of a rule of law in western jurisdictions. It's why cases like Julian Assange are as controversial as they are, with public organizations in USA willing to make the case to support him and inquire on his well-being.
Our media is controlled but there is semblance of free press. You don't have even that in China. If you're a dissident in China you'd be hard pressed garnering support from any org.
I don't presume to have a complete picture. Maybe if I did it may suggest USA is in reality more like China. But from all that I've seen, authoritarian governments like China continue to have serious shortcomings in the kinds of freedoms we take for granted in the West.
This is a fallacy, though. There is nothing about Western jurisdictions which isn't also attainable in the "Eastern" ones, wherever they are. This moral altitude is a fallacy and drives so much enmity, disaster and calamity in the world. We do not have the right to demolish countless sovereign states in the world, and then call out China, which hasn't even come close to the level of calamity that we, Western citizens, support with our apathy towards our own governments. We might have a 'semblance' of rule of law at home - but it is absolutely not what we export to the rest of the world.
We destroy nations - China builds them.
So would Australias Witnesses J, K, L, M, N and O .. who have been disappeared into a military Star Court, for the sake of political dissidence.
Be very careful with your castigation of China. We have far, far more political dissidents in our prisons than you know about. And that is by design.