Dictatorship? No, don’t be ridiculous. Xi Jinping is many things, but he is not a dictator. It’s much, much worse.

He’s the leader of an entire party of violent nationalists who put the good of the party above the good of any individual. See, when a dictator dies or is deposed, they might be replaced by a new dictator, but at least their fascist ideology goes with them. Xi doesn’t simply rule for his own benefit, and the human rights abuses will not end with his reign.

That’s not a defense of western democracies, Russia, Christian nationalists, or tinpot dictators anywhere. Everybody’s got problems.