https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
"The war ended on 17 August 1842, with the Treaty of Nanking enabling the British to 'carry on their mercantile transactions with whatever persons they please'. The treaty committed the Chinese to free trade, including the trade in opium."
The British practically fought the war to be free to be drug dealers to the whole country, asserting they have the right to "free trade." If you are studying economy or history, you already knew that, otherwise you probably haven't, unless you are Chinese: if I understand correctly, such details are, IMHO rightly, the necessary part of the Chinese curriculum.
Free trade is of course even now only used as a term for "others" to accept what "we" want to do. In other direction, "we" can simply care about the "national security":
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/12/trump-issues-order-prohibiti...
The Newspeak principles weren't invented by Orwell. One country's free trade is another country's national security.
Krupp and Armstrong made boat-loads of money selling top-of-the-line hardware to China during this whole self-strengthening movement.
Taking into account the costs of doing science in the two countries, China's investment has probably surpassed the US based on purchasing power parity (PPP) adjustment.
A root cause of the Century of Humiliation was China's then technological inferiority to Western powers and Japan, resulting in losses despite its massive manpower advantage (e.g., ~200,000 vs ~20,000 troops in the First Opium War). It is unsurprising that they took to heart a painful and vivid lesson on the importance of technological and scientific development.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Opium_War