I think fundamentally a lot of people do not understand that just because China and Russia (or a number of other countries) are in opposition to the US doesn't inherently make them "good." They're pretty much all shitty too, just in different ways than the US, yet actual problems get brushed off as "the loss of making Winnie the Poo jokes," as if not being able to make jokes on Weibo is the problem.

Instead of "China is not trying to oppress its citizens" it'd be more accurate to say that China is not in the state of advanced decline that requires [as much] oppression of its citizens to maintain power and control. Everything else, unfortunately, is spot on.

Even left as-is, it's a far cry from "intentional propaganda". What motive would there even be to spread such? Do you imagine hordes of self-hating Americans, Chinese bots and shills, and China stans are behind every post that criticizes the U.S. and praises China? Or that someone somehow managed to "brainwash" a significant portion of the population into believing complete fabrications and/or turning their allegiance to China?

The reality is that most people have a far easier time believing pleasant fictions and ignoring inconvenient facts than they do swallowing their pride and conceding to an enemy. On the Internet it's pretty much everyone, and the rare exceptions must be eradicated. Case in point.