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I lived in China for many years. The society there is basically as free as the US.

You’re joking right?

I spent two weeks in China a few years ago. Very eye opening trip. There are many differences, but for starters:

1. The Internet is heavily censored. You cannot access FB in China (w/o a bad of tricks). Likewise, you are limited in what books & newspapers you can buy. Much of the TV fare is pure propaganda. {I found a series on heroic Chinese soldiers vs. Japanese occupiers in WWII to be a laugh riot]
2. Investments of Chinese citizens are restricted
3. You cannot just purchase a car. You have to take a number.
4. If you buy a house, your family can only keep it for 99 years.
5. Religious freedom is tenuous. While I didn’t experiences this directly (as I didn’t try to attend services on my trip), we had some Chinese visitors here subsequently (for about 4 months). One of their parting remarks about what they liked about America was: a) orderly traffic, b) clean air/good environment, c) open Internet, and d) ability to worship freely.
6. There are Communist Party representatives in most workplaces. [Some say that these are equivalent to our Federal Government inspectors, but I doubt it]

4. If you buy a house, your family can only keep it for 99 years.

I had an interesting conversation with a Chinese student about that. I don’t think it was 99 years,there was a shorter period of time, thinking 20 years. The 99 years may be a info bleed from the Taiwan situation. The interesting thing was his EXPECTATION (and I assume others) after the lease. He expected it to be his after he kept it up and made improvements. For the government to go against this expectation will be interesting. Now the people have something to fight for, they are owners.