China is still far more repressive as a system (and Xinjiang is in its own category). The point isn’t equivalence; it’s convergence. Democracies don’t have to become ‘China’ to become unrecognizable fast, what matters is whether coercive tools are being politicized, whether oversight still bites, and whether abuses have consequences.

Personally I don't feel its constructive to discuss who's worst, because there are many axis they could be compared on. But when it comes to internal human rights violations, China has infrastructure in place for industrial control of dissent. The US is not there but is currently on a crash course towards authoritarianism