Dictatorships require dictators. PW Botha was a lot of bad things, but he was not a dictator. China is considered a dictatorship because Xi has dictatorial powers.

Anyway this is all just semantics. The more important point is probably that it corrupts corporations to do business in countries with repressive governments, and to follow their repressive laws.

China is further along the repressive-government scale than many of us would like. I believe that Apple management are among the truly bothered, but moral complications abound, and ultimately their fiduciary-duty options are limited.