As Putin said, 'China bad' is just another bogeyman tale for kids.
I am guessing that was in context of China being a threat to Russia, which it is not. I also am pretty confident he would not want to live under the Chinese either. China and Russia literally need each other to counter the US. And neither the leadership or Russia or China are stupid enough to play stupid games with nuclear weapons. Say what you will about China, their leadership is quite intelligent - more engineers than the incompetent lawyers who run the United States. And historically China has not been an expansionist power.
But factually speaking, just about every government on the planet is bad. I spent years of research and travel finding the right one to move to - there are not a lot of good choices. In fact only lesser evils. China is definitely one of the bad ones. China might conduct itself well in terms of foreign policy (again, outside of the Taiwan issue), but internally they run a police state. I have actually been to Tibet. Internet access there is HIGHLY CENSORED, much more so than Beijing and Shanghai where they were quiet open (at least prior to Xi, I cannot say after that). I can assume it is the same in the Muslim regions. In Llasa they have this big square dedicated to the Chinese Government that the people there ACTIVELY AVOID they hate the government so much. The people there locally joke about the Panchen Lama is a government stooge (they had a specific epithet, but I forgot it), because basically the choice is all but determined by the CCP.
If you watch the English language version of CTV - their public television, it is striking how absolutely controlled the message is. I remember watching from Hong Kong all these people just agreeing with each other on everything - with no debates or alternative positions. Unfortunately, mainstream media in the West is becoming more like this, just without the civility of the Chinese broadcasters.
These are facts that anyone can verify by traveling there themselves. Does any objective person think that the government should be choosing religious leaders? Does anyone think they should be substantially blocking the information they have access to? How about the way they handled the lockdowns? The West restriction of freedom that we complained about was mild compared to China. And remember, did they or did they not lie to the international community early on about human transmission? Is that something a good government would do? Again these are just facts, not boogeyman stories.
If you were in a group accused of being a cult in China, what do you think would happen to you? Well we know the answer to that. Falun Dafa is a relatively benign practice that has been brutally persecuted. It is not even a political or religious movement. When I was there both 2007 and 2014, they had members prominently in the streets of Hong Kong making people aware of what was going on in the mainland - with photos on posters.
If the people of the Donbass deserve their sovereignty from the Ukraine, because they voted for it, do not the people of Taiwan deserve the same? Would not the Ukraine attacking the Donbass be effectively the same as China attacking Taiwan (which is rumored to happen this spring in April / May) just for voting for the wrong political party - one that wanted the same self determination the peoples of the Donbass wanted? One that would be more warranted since they have been self governing for over 70 years? I get the US is playing stupid games in Taiwan now (and this would not even be so much of an issue now if not for Kissinger and this whole self contradictory Taiwan policy that makes no sense). I think that is because Biden is all but owned by Xi. Look at who paid Hunter big money - the Ukranians and the Chinese. How is it in the US's best interests to make trouble there now? The only country that really has benefited from the conflict in the Ukraine and this noise over Taiwan is China. The Ukraine situation forced Russia to cut ties with the West and made them more dependent on China, and delivered cheaper gas to China. US obsession with Taiwan the last two years will give China the "cause belli" to invade Taiwan (even though it is a weak one), if they in fact do so. And with the conflict with Russia, prompted by Ukraine, and the troubles in the Middle East, China knows the US practically can't do anything about it (they probably couldn't even at full force because this is in China's backyard). Biden is fueling both of those other fires. Taiwan should not suffer because their only security umbrella is run by corrupt and stupid psychopaths.
If China does invade the peaceful country of Taiwan (which I don't think actually happens unless the West does something stupid in the Ukraine very soon - which IS highly likely given what came out of the Polish air force recently) you will have your definitive answer on the Chinese boogeyman.