The other commenter mentioned it, but I'll reinforce it: This is completely unrelated to Socialism. If anything, whatever "Socialism" exists in China is one of the few things to applaud to them. Similarly to "Socialism" practiced in Norway, Finland, Sweden and even Germany to a certain degree.
What you are thinking of is either "Communism" or, in the case of what is being discussed here more like Authoritarism and Oligarchy. Both of those two are definitely present in China, and more and more present in Western countries who push methods of mass survelliance of the population to further advance their goals.
> Communists agree on the ultimate withering away of the state but disagree on the means to this end, reflecting a distinction between a more libertarian approach of communization, revolutionary spontaneity, and workers' self-management, and a more vanguardist or communist party-driven approach through the development of a constitutional socialist state.
I think communism is the ultimate utopia and it is unlikely to be ever achieved because people are generally unhappy to have the surplus they produced to be redistributed. Without coercion of a socialist state you won't get redistribution.
At the same time, a government is not an abstract entity. It's just other people who make decision in your place and often get some extra privileges on top because of it - negating the communist goal of achieving a classless society.
That said, I understand your point of view. Socialism is an economic philosophy based around social ownership and doesn't dictate anything about privacy.
That said, the centralisation required to achieve socialism (similar to what we see in our society: you need a taxman to forcefully steal profits from all the citizens and build some roads) implies the creation of a strong state who has all the interests in surveilling citizens.
Socialism and redistribution imply authoritarianism.
All the socialist libertarian and left wing anarchists doctrines can't work unless you have perfect, not greedy, law abiding and honest citizens happy to give away exactly the surplus they produce. Which is to say, it will never work in a normal society, it may work in a small village with like minded people.
What you are thinking of is either "Communism" or, in the case of what is being discussed here more like Authoritarism and Oligarchy. Both of those two are definitely present in China, and more and more present in Western countries who push methods of mass survelliance of the population to further advance their goals.