Maximum propaganda about China in the west has done people in. But people in the west still swears that they actually have press freedom. Yet, no mainstream press will ever write anything remotely positive about China or simply daily life in China.
It takes staggering levels of privilege to claim visiting China as a US national is the same as living there as a Chinese national.
People don't understand how these authoritarian regimes work because it's so far outside of their experience. During the Nazi rule and occupation most people just continued their lives as before, especially during the first few years. What else could you do, right? And mostly, it was kind of okay. But it wasn't "safe" by any means, even for non-Jews. But people also weren't shaking with fear 24/7.
In fact they go hand in hand, the state offers security and protection and the citizen offers up political agency and free-speech.
Also, define “equally” in your context.
The number of videos that westerners are receiving with positive messages about daily life in China, (or S. Korea, or Japan) on tablets, laptops or TV channels has never been so high in fact.
The problem is that this history in particular is indistinguishable from a South Park parody
Other things said may be or not be true, but as we are talking about this history, it seems backed by solid and credible evidences.
China has police presence around the world[1]. And remember how they controlled the narrative around COVID, the dubious WHO report in 2020, and this interview[2]?
[1]: https://www.newsweek.com/china-overseas-police-service-cente...