Extremely few Chinese think they are superior due to racial differences or so. However, we do believe that China has been able to improve the living standards of the people more than India.
We know that the average Chinese has a better life than the average Indian. Let me tell you something, personal freedom means NOTHING if you can't cover your basic needs. Compare it to Maslow's pyramide of human needs.
Also, you cannot compare China today with China 10, 20 years ago. Nevertheless, I am certain that personal freedom has improved a lot. People can demonstrate as long as they are not violent and is revolting against the government.
There are of course corruption among some officials, e.g do not pay the compensation to people who have been relocated etc. These stories are the ones that make it to Western media of course. But you never hear about the many good ones, like my father's uncle who received 2m RMB in compensation when a company bought his land for redevelopment.
As for censorship, sorry to say, but this is the best for the people right now. When you come to a country with this huge population, one "rumour" or hearsay can cause huge disaster. I wonder how the Chinese will react if Chinese media revealed all the China bashing articles from Indian media? As for free press, many newspapers exaggerates the news and is meant to sell, it is really easy to invent news.
You know what they say in the military? "Trust is good, control is better". As China is poor now, it is more important to have a secure, hard handed government in the beginning. Compare it to the Maslow pyramide.
If you want to make a country richer, it is easier to let the skillful ones get rich first, then gradually let the poor ones share the cake afterwards. This is called capitalism. Trying to make everybody richer is not efficient and gives fewer incentives for the skillful ones.
I am sorry that we will have to demolish some houses against people's will to make way for the high speed railway, highway or skyscraper. NIMBYism that is being exploited by some greedy individuals will not be tolerated in China.
Besides, China has always been a collectivistic culture, placing the people first, then the individual. As for corruption/networking/guanxi, this is also been part of Chinese culture, but not limited to China. India is also infamous for its corruption. Even in democratic Taiwan, corruption runs deep, so you can't blame the Communist government.
All that said, no country is perfect. We Chinese acknowledge that, and we try our utmost to improve our country. Why do you think China is trading natural resources "everywhere"? Why is China building infrastructure and power plants like crazy? To improve our country of course.
Sadly, we cannot have both ways. We cannot have a enormous manufacturing base without pollution. We cannot build infrastructure without destroying somebody's house. This is called economy - the study of allocating limited resources to their best usage. And sometimes, we build huge things that does not immediately make economical sense, but how can you measure the feeling of national pride in money? E.g the space program or Beijing Olympics (although the Olympics was definitely worth the money). Main point is - to improve the masses, sometimes the individual cannot be satisfied.
Of course, since China is so big, we will always have crooks that will give a bad image of China. That is why China has some of the world's strictest penalties, to try to prevent such crimes.
Sometimes, China do things that other countries protest against. One of the first thing I learnt in sergeant school was that "a leader is not a person that is always popular". And I think that is totally true with China. China should not bow to hostile countries. We should care for those who are friendly to us, be stubborn against those who are against us.
I am hugely proud of the progress that has been made in Mainland China. China is definitely determinant to become a super power, a renewed Middle Kingdom. In 50 years, we will look back now on issues on freedom like the U.S. looks back on the racism during the 1960's. We are showing the world that you don't have to be a Western style democracy to excel.