I understand you are familiar with Russia. But China is not Russia. You don't know China. By your reasoning ("Russia was X so China must also be X"), WW2 German

I understand you are familiar with Russia. But China is not Russia. You don't know China. By your reasoning ("Russia was X so China must also be X"), WW2 Germany (a democracy) was fascist therefore all other democracies must be fascist too. --- In Germany, displaying the letter "Z" in a way that is meant to show support for Russia can lead to up to 3 years in prison: https://www.rnd.de/politik/z-symbol-strafbar-bis-zu-drei-jahre-haft-fuer-billigung-des-russischen-angriffskriegs-moeglich-FM55B5UQS34T6FDEI5JE2OUVOM.html https://www.rnd.de/politik/z-symbol-strafbar-bis-zu-drei-jah... "Mehrere Bundesländer haben bereits angekündigt, das öffentliche Zeigen des Symbols zu ahnden. Grundlage ist der Paragraf 140 im Strafgesetzbuch zur „Billigung von Straftaten“. Demnach kann dies mit bis zu drei Jahren Haft oder einer Geldstrafe bestraft werden" --- The famine was a result of inexperienced governance in peace time, not "authoritarian policies". Just like the Irish potato famine was not a result of "democratic policies". The Cultural Revolution was not a display of authoritarian power. Instead, it was mob rule fueled by revolutionary zeal. During the Cultural Revolution, the state was largely non-functional. Many people joined Mao's campaigns willingly, as opposed to Mao sending his army to force people at gunpoint to do things. The Cultural Revolution was an attempt to fix a broken country, by leaders who had little experience with peacetime operations. Today, Mao's mistakes are officially recognized. Both good and bad came out of the Cultural Revolution: there was a famine, but life expectancy also rose by more than a decade. One also has to keep in mind that famines were a regular thing in China during previous rulers, so with this context one can say that that famine was the last one China ever had. Given all this, to then describe the Cultural Revolution and the famine as "authoritarian rule" is hugely reductionist and misleading. The sort of reductionist rhetoric you employ can just as easily be applied to democracies. Nobody was accountable for when the British Empire put China on drugs. Nobody was accountable for the Iraq war. By your own reasoning, "democratic policies" lead to imperialism — a wrong conclusion due to reductionism.