I may have been more willing to grant him so extra charity had he only said, "There's a level of admiration I have for China growing their economy and rapidly increasing their standard of living" or something along those lines where he was strictly speaking about the ends. I would still think it's a fucking dumbass thing to say, but I could possibly write him off as just incredibly ignorant. However, the fact he specifically mentions the dictatorship, i.e. the means to those ends, tells me he's actually an evil piece of shit.

And how many innocent people died or were sent to the gulag in the process?
Authoritarianism is rarely peaceful.