Are you sure it's the government, not some random Chinese though? I've know enough patriotic mainlanders who would do this. Brainwashed you may say, but still they would act like that genuinely.
I have also met a few extremely left-leaning/socialist Americans that were part of my meetup group a few years back that loved China's system and praised it as better than the US in every way. All concerns about brutality, taking away rights, and an authoritarian regime were waved off as something beneficial and required to maintain a good society.
About 20 years ago, I worked for a computer store that regularly hired Chinese immigrants, because the owner was himself Chinese. One woman would not even allow me to mention the Chinese government in front of her. She was afraid that they were somehow listening to her and that her family back home would be punished. She had been in the US for at least 8 or 9 years at this point.