>...put a break on moving in the right direction and now we need to react

- What do you mean "the right direction"? Do you mean the "open and free direction" that "Hey you can't have our Nvidia chips but must keep selling us cheap rare earth"? - And who are "we"? I suggest "we"'d better take care of "ourselves" instead of "react".

A classical liberal society. Freedom of speech, elections... They were not there, but seemed to be moving that way.

That looks like a strawman. Try: "Away from a dictatorship."

The right direction is accepting Western world domination and not challenging it.