It's not whataboutism if the premise made explicitly by you is to compare and contrast the "badness" of the west with China. And anyway, a claim that the west

It's not whataboutism if the premise made explicitly by you is to compare and contrast the "badness" of the west with China. And anyway, a claim that the west isn't worse than China does not entail a belief that the west hasn't done anything wrong or doesn't have objectionable administrative policies.