Michael Hudson, in an excellent analytical article on geopolitical economy, reminds us that the current Chinese economic model is actually a slightly modernised copy of what the US economy was once based on. The Americans threw away their successful model and the Chinese have taken it over. Professor Budil, by the way, says the same thing in Czech discussion.
Of course, when you adopt an economic model, you unwittingly adopt a social model to a large extent. So we can read China as a mixture of Chinese tradition and old America.
However, the Chinese are aware that the American model was destroyed by bankers and financial speculators, and they are carefully maintaining tight control over the financial sector. This is what is now called “communism” and “dictatorship” in the West, Hudson points out.
It has nothing to do with restricting the personal freedom of ordinary citizens. It is about the right of bankers to seize political power.