Melissa Chan says the same, in an article I missed when it came out. She thinks we have to update from “Authoritarian” and I agree. Fascist is more accurate.
She says:
...consider the hallmarks of fascism: a surveillance state with a strongman invoking racism, nationalism and traditional family values at home, while building up a military for expansion abroad.
She misses “Dirigisme”. That is, the State direction of the economy and society. Which China does: socially by, eg, saying men can’t be “sissy boys”; people can’t be “lying flat”, and so on. And in the economy, directing, even the private companies, to its aims. Like stopping imports from Australia, because we had the gall to ask about the origin of the coronavirus.
