Not defending China's level of freedom here, but our system in the West is increasingly moving in that direction. Our governments increasingly interpret national security and public safety unreasonably broadly to curtail basic freedoms
Certainly there have been cases in the West where free speech are curtailed due to concern or anxiety over national security. But while you guys are traveling north from Hawaii , we are already in the Arctic.
No, it is not, at least if by West you mean to include the United States. There has never been a point in US history where we have been more free to say anything and everything.