There's a phenomenon when PRC comes up where people actively root for the United States to lose. Some of these people are even Americans (at least on paper). Regardless of the wisdom of the Iran war, there is a sizable amount that wants to see dead Americans result from it because it would allow them to do the same moral preening that is going on in this thread with regard to China. The Americans finally "got what they had coming", or some such silliness. I expect to see the same thing as the race, such as you can call it a race, to return to the moon gets going. I don't have a good explanation for this because, like you say, it's bonkers to look at PRC and think it's at all comparable on any given freedom metric, so I think these people are simply lying.

The one plausible claim they could make is, ironically, one similar to Altman's claim a while back that visiting China was "easier" (I don't recall his precise phrasing) because there is a very clear and public list of things you are not allowed to talk about and actions you are not allowed to take. This list is, of course, subject to change.