for a while after Mao's death China functioned more as an authoritarian oligarchy than a totalitarian dictatorship. Not a liberal democracy by any means but clearly less bad. This has been reversing somewhat under Xi Jinping.
Those both still sound like tyranny to me.
Its most certainly incorrect to compare Mao with Xi.
He was unabashedly and indisputably, totalitarian. The fact that he lost power eventually, is irrelevant. Every type of leader, eventually, loses power.
You don't need a dictatorship for horrific things to occur.