Criticizing a "regime" run by democracy, both direct and representative, is criticizing the people. It's also criticizing a race, in this case, as you people never evolved past the "sneaky Chinaman" stereotype in your criticisms.
Every communist state to my knowledge has instant recall; if an elected official isn't doing what you want, you can get signatures to force a recall vote.
The implication of what they're saying is that the Chinese government's actions generally represent the will of the Chinese people so you can't just separate them like you can with America.
Do you agree with this implication or did you just explain it to me? Because I would never equate the actions of the government of a nation state with the people who happen to live there