Western hegemony works a lot with creating NGOs, Think-tanks, pushing their Social Media platforms, News agencies, etc. onto other countries to further their interests in these and undermining their sovereignity. If a countries recognize this and kick those out they are instantly labeled authoritarian or limiting their freedom of speech (of course it's no problem when it's happening in western countries e.g. RT, TASS with the outbreak of the war). It's what what my comment referencing manufacturing consent was hinting at

against their policies to promote ideas contrary to the vision/interests of the CCP or create dissent or however they phrase

The CPC is very popular and has 100M members, meaning pretty much everyone in their family has a member there. Long Term studies show that the Chinese are pretty much satified with their government. Allowing for open criticism is opening the gates for the west to undermine their sovereignity (it's not like the CPC isn't responding to it e.g. COVID restrictions after minor protests broke out)

Want to make the good news I see outnumber the bad 10:1? Fine, but leave the bad news in there. And I definitely don’t think organizations should censor their failures/problems. Admitting when you’ve made a mistake shows you’re trying to improve; hiding your mistakes makes you seem much less trustworthy in general.

I agree, but you underestimate the soft power the US and the west in general has pushing their narrative and undermining progressive movements worldwide. China, unlike the west, has been subject to imperialism so it's understandable to have a tighter grip on narrative (I mean the west and generally all nation states do that to some degree)