It’s never used in a way that suggests it’s anything but a binary. You yourself said “that has no bearing on whether the country is authoritarian or not.” Which is clearly not describing a binary.
Reasonable people: no, it’s because it’s good for their people and economy, but that has no bearing on whether the country is relatively more authoritarian than other countries or not.
China Good and China Bad are equally annoying opinions to me.
I’d still choose to live in China over the USA any day though haha
It’s never used in a way that suggests it’s anything but a binary. You yourself said “that has no bearing on whether the country is authoritarian or not.” Which is clearly not describing a binary.
Happy?