nobody batted an eye on china when famines were caused by the british, just on the specific post-revolutionary period they were still struggling. nobody bats an eye to the us prision system which is worse than the soviet prision system was either, shit i think my country currently has a way more cruel prision system.
overall, when you look into it, the atrocities either were exaggerated or didnt happen. shit, some of these psyops were even admitted later by the CIA.
i think the chinese standard of living is quite comparable to europe, on average too, and its quite impressive how fast they went from one of the poorest to one of the richest countries out there.
social democracy is barely left wing tbh, they barely made progress outside of europe, and are still tainted by the red scare. even then they seem to be sliding back, since they are losing the colonial power over africa, which is a big part if what keeps them rich.