It is complete nonsense to say that Chinese state schools enjoy a high degree of freedom. I am sure when those western inspectors turned up at the school gate those teachers had very firm instruction on what to say and what was to be shown. It will have been a political imperative to get Chinese schools to the top of the tables, why else count only one city, and that Shanghai, the most culturally digestible city in China after Hong Kong for westerners? A lot of the control is informal though, as is media censorship, and so not transparent. That is the way Chinese government and society works. It long ago ceased to be a totalitarian state in terms of formal controls, but keeps a tight rein through informal controls and daylight raids (much cheaper to keep control via fear.)
And culturally it is a world away. It is correct that with a history of over a thousand years of a meritocracy via an exam system based on rote learning that certain values have been instilled in Chinese culture, values that apply in the diaspora too. However it is as fundamental as language and the associated neural development. Literacy skills are acquired through learning thousands of characters, no phonics, very economic grammar, and no alternative but rote learning via pictorial memory, how you assess any sort of comparative literacy skills I don't understand, it's chalk and cheese.
And it is changing and the dynamic is a perceived need by parents for their children to acquire more diverse skills, not just English, but more creativity and critical thinking so that they are seeking a western style education, and paying for it. Go to even a very traditional Chinese city in the the heart of China like Chengdu or Chongqing (largest conurbation on the world ) and you will find every other private school called Etonian or Harrow (and in other cities it will actually be Harrow)
I do wish that these Inspectors would actually travel with someone who actually knows about Chinese society, culture and government 