They had been loosening restrictions and allowing dissent for a bit, but recently under Xi Jinping things have gone sour because of the anti-corruption crusadewhich was also a convenient vehicle to get rid of some political enemies.
From an outsider's perspective it looks like "one party system" = "dictatorship", but the Communist party has had transitions between different presidents in recent years. To get the one person there, it's a lot of politicking within the ranks of the political elite, which are not necessarily unified in approaches.
It's also not as if the government does not respond to dissent or completely deletes dissent. The Tianjin explosion definitely got a heavy response due to huge public reaction among the Chinese populace.
I'm not providing a defense of China's practices. I'm suggesting that the typical American has very little understanding of China's internal politicseven I am not that knowledgeable. What I do know is that Trump will provide the Chinese population with a legitimate boogeyman instead of an imagined one cooked up by the Chinese government. That can definitely make things worse than they already are for activists and ethnic populations in China, as well as the extremely poor workers that are under economic duress but will have their concerns ignored in favor of blasting Trump. He will be used as an example of why their lives are worse, and stoke nationalism and radicalism. Creating a feedback loop where the Chinese government might feel they have to be more aggressive in order to not look stupid to their population.
Some people here can't think further than just the immediate impact, or think about the situation from China's perspective or from Taiwan's perspective. Unless you are ready to commit to war, don't be so flagrant with your words.
