> it was thinking that investment in China would equal liberalization and democratic reforms

China now _is_ far more liberal than in the 80-s. But it's also not even close to the Western democracies.

> China, on the other hand, had not moved away from command economics at the time. Instead, the result was state capitalism.

Not really. "State capitalism" really is misleading. China is fiercely capitalistic, far more than any modern Western country. The ruling party has an unspoken agreement with the population: you stay out of politics, and they stay out of your business.

But I don't think this is sustainable. Russia had a similar social compact, and it had been broken after the Ukrainian invasion. There was too much power concentrated in one person, and it just never works.