That is the tradeoff..... The government may restrict the Internet in a more direct way in China, but similar things have happened in the US.
Advertising companies and server cost have vicariously limited the scope of what we are allowed access on the internet. Internet sites that are deemed to be un safe for advertising are removed from search engines or denied hosting. That's happened over the course of a decade and now the government is taking a direct hand in censorship.
Soo... It's kinda hard to say which is more free if we account for the private sector removing choice for their own benefit. We just don't take to account what private companies do to us as removing our freedoms, even though it restricts is in more definitive ways.
Just look at healthcare in the US being used as a form of indentured servitude, where you may be gambling with your very well being if you want to change your job.