And I know an expat family from China who are communists and broadly support China and the CPC.

Tit for tat anecdotes don’t Trump actual data.

I think he helped give a lot of solid ideas that the system itself could be reformed and reforged

Bro didn’t read the book

Zero possibility that this friend lied?

Some people love to lie especially if it gets a rise out of people. “Defectors” including the likes of Yeonmi Park from the DPRK also are financially incentivised to lie. I know people that lie about shit in the UK to make things sound worse than it is, and they will swear up and down it’s true after being called out on it.