By no measure is China a freer society today than it was 10 years ago.
Two steps forward one step back. In the last ten years, more people have travelled, studied, or learned about the world than ever before. The people running the show will die one day, that's not representative of what will happen. It's what the people think that determines what will happen. What the younger generations have experienced in their personal lives will translate to what they want for society, and that's my measure: the younger people are much freer in their personal lives than those 10 years ago. They know what they want, and one day they will get it.
Pretty clear that less liberty is the outcome for all.
That's debatable but we know for a fact the USA was freer 10 years ago.