So is the opposite, namely citing the apparent effectiveness of the Chinese response to argue for more authoritarianism broadly and generally.

Emergencies are not normal conditions, and it is both rational and ethical to behave differently and even employ different political and ethical models during them. In an emergency, naked pragmatism rules. Do what works, whatever that is.

Example: its normally very unethical to torture someone. What if a nuke is about to destroy a city and they know the disarm code? Maybe it is under that condition, but if so it does not follow that torture is now broadly legitimate. That was an ethical edge case.