Chinese nationals do not find "consensus" and they have zero say in how their
country is run.

Silverboy, I wrote that they struggle to find consensus. Nations are never unitary in their thinking. The thousands of people in the party congress are chosen locally, many of course are party members, but party members in China are in the millions. Many of course are somewhat or entirely corrupt, but that is not unlike my own homeland. I feel that "zero say" is not correct. I do agree that power is not widely enough distributed in China, but I feel the same about the U.S.

The Chinese media is state owned. There is only "one voice" in China, many Chinese
told me this when I lived there.

The U.S. media is corporate owned. Chinese social media is alive and well, but yes: controlled in content. I agree that a free press is very important and that the west is superior to China in that regard.

China is not a dictatorship? A country where people are imprisoned for even slight forms of
dissent IS a dictatorship.

Per capita the U.S. has the world's most imprisoned population. Dictatorship refers to the consolidation of power within one person that is not distributed in a legislative body or checked by a judiciary. Few political scientists would characterize China as a dictatorship.

Chinese people also can't
and don't vote, so the Chinese government has no mandate and zero legitimacy. Nobody put
the communists in power, they put THEMSELVES in there.

On the local level Chinese vote directly for village officials. I do not accept the concepts of mandates and legitimacy. Power controls all societies which then are variably successful in deluding their citizens. The Chinese communist party has always been comprised of Chinese citizens who have seized their country from the Kuomintang and have maintained power in the same way that all government maintain power, education, fear and coercion. The U.S. seized the continent from the native Americans, built their society on slavery and cheap immigrant labor, and has waged an endless military industrial imperialism against the weaker nations of the world. The U.S. has been enormously successful in selling the 'narrative' of freedom, justice, and U.S. exceptionalism to its poorly educated citizens who all to often blame themselves for their poverty and increasingly diminished share of national wealth.

The Chinese do not celebrate individuality or diversity. China is an extremely hostile and
xenophobic nation.

In that you celebrate individuality, SB, you will certainly appreciate my honest personal opinions that differ from yours in these regards.

Hope Pattaya is treating you well. Enjoy.