“Authoritarianism” isn’t objectively measured. In my view, all states can be considered authoritarian, as they all are monopolies on violence. Therefore, what matters more is which class controls that authority. In China, the working classes objectively control the state, so I can see why someone would laugh at claims of “Chinese authoritarianism” as the working classes in China have more freedom than those in the west. I’d still consider it to be “authoritarian,” but a good kind, a working class kind.