Agreed - but if you live in China, the government already has your face mapped and is tracking you wherever you go... so maybe it is a zero additional cost for their citizens to give their face away to another application.
I was in an airport in China. A screen said "Walk up to the camera and we'll tell you which way to your gate.". I did so, the screen highlighted my face on the camera feed, showed me my name and my gate. Geezus Christ, they don't hide the fact that they're tracking faces...
When you first enter China, you have to let a machine scan your face (IIRC fingerprints too?), and locals have to scan their (RFID-enabled) IDs to enter airports or train stations; so they seem to really have total control.
London Heathrow has face-tracking gates. Entering the US has required fingerprints for many years, at least for me.
I can't imagine how an international traveller could in good faith single out China as having "total control" on these grounds in a way that is qualitatively different from Western countries.
Some flights from Europe to US do this at the gate -- there's no opt-out. I remember flying AA from AMS and everybody had to get scanned before boarding (CBP agents were present).
call me a luddite but that's one innovation that I can do without.