He's a fairly brutal dictator...I'm suspicious of anything that talks up a dictator.

Xi Jinping is not a dictator, he was elected into his position and his legitimacy comes from the outcomes of his policy and leadership. He has been in politics for nearly his entire life and rose through the ranks by being an excellent party cadre. I'm assuming you only view him as a dictator because you've been trained to do so by western press.

The elimination of term limits doesn't inherently lessen democratic power nor does its presence automatically increase it. Only material outcomes determine whether a system is democratic or not, just to get that out of the way.

Let me frame it like this: a person without shelter, who can't pay for food and medicine, or a myriad of other concerns does not have the same level of human rights as those that can, this can't be objected to without admitting that western notions of human rights are not based in reality but idealism. China works on raising the standard of living for the majority, not appeasing an ideology. Those living in China have more human rights than those living in western countries if we measure human rights based on quality of life and not on personal feelings.

Let me break it down even further: China would arrest and jail anyone spreading antivax lies while the US makes them the head of the health department (RFK Jr). Decide which society is more free.