Do we live in an alternate reality where open state censorship of media and the Great Firewall are somehow not a thing in China any more?

Of course it is a thing, same as corporate censorship in the West. It’s just that Chinese don’t try to pretend it’s not the case.

Corporate censorship and state censorship are completely different beasts, and this false equivalence you're trying to paint is obvious FUD.

Indeed - one of them can be, at least in theory, controlled by society. That’s what’s happening in China. The other is where corporations essentially own the state, as is the case in US.

Right, otherwise, it's just propaganda and people lying about their own horrific experiences.

Got it.

They aren’t lying. It’s hair that there is similar amount of people with similar experiences in, say, American prisons. Propaganda is how you somehow pretend those are different.

OK, so as an example, based on your logic here, Muslim detention camps ("re-education centers") with forced abortions and sterilizations are either lies and propaganda OR they rise to the same level of cruelty as incarcerations and systemic racism in US? Having lived through systematic executions and genocide personally, believe me when I say there is a huge difference. I'm not entirely sure if you are making a purely misguided intellectual argument here or, truly, have an ulterior motive in making these assertions. In any case, and for what it's worth to you or anyone else bothering to read these comments and reactions, your comparisons are outside the realm of reality.