Also @moonsnotreal@lemmy.blahaj.zone referred i the "CCP" which is a racist reordering of the CPC to emphasize the Chinese over the Communist. The actual name of the party is Communist Party of China. This distinction is important because the communist movement is international and the emphasis being placed here on China serves only as a scare tactic and is also rooted in orientalism which is also a racist trope.

even in the most sympathetic documentaries about the country, everyone’s lives revolve around the leader and the revolution almost a century ago.

The revolution is fucking important, but I don't think people in some rural town have their lives revolve around the Kims and not, idk, their crops, their temple, local affairs.