So the Chinese media has all these videos of life in China which don't seem too bad to fool Americans... even though the videos are in Mandarin and the only reason I know they even exist is because I am dating a Chinese woman. That's a pretty devious plan.
No, they don't have the standard of living we have... yet. Uh, 100 years ago, America was a pretty fucking miserable place to live for 70% of the population before liberals created a middle class. (Not to worry, Republicans are frantically working to dismantle it). Economically, China has advanced a lot quicker than we have.
As far as whose government is "oppressive", American police shoot 1000 suspects a year, and we lock up 2 million people compared to China's 1.5 million (Even though China has five times as many people as we have.)
Now, do I think China is a paradise? Hardly. They have a culture that is very different than ours in many ways.
But they aren't our enemy.