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The pessimistic view: basically everything you do online can be tracked, sold, and bought by anyone with a few bucks. Poor online security means you have no privacy regardless of browser, while good (or at least "better") online security is possible with almost any browser.
If your friend is advocating switching browsers, but with no other behavioral changes, that's just a false sense of security, which may be worse.
To more directly address the question, unless you are a Chinese dissident, "China" having your browsing data isn't any better or worse that Google or Microsoft or Meta having that same data. Spoiler: for the average user, they already do.
I'm not a Chinese dissident but it's not inconceivable that I might want to go to China one day for business or pleasure. That would be a bad idea considering how vocal I've been about hating the CCP. If they've correlated my statements to my identity, they could have me arrested on trumped up charges when my flight lands.
Google or Meta wouldn't do that. It's not even in the same ballpark as bad as a state level actor.
Good example is this woman who went to Russia