When you talk about censorship, you must also talk about freedom of speech which usually is a well-defined legal term in countries that supports it. On the other hand, moderation is a form of management. Depends on why and how the action is carried out, moderation could be better or worse than censorship.
And,
> If the Chinese government couldn’t censor - only moderate
This is exactly how most censorship is implemented in China, through moderation. See the funny part there?
The point is, I don't think the word Moderation must inherently better than Censorship, it all depends on the why and hows.
If there's no distinction to be drawn because you're asserting that moderation means that something different in China, I think that is you rather than the author that's using terms in non-standard ways.