Forget about pundits, Bill Clinton made this argument: "The American people support this agreement because they know it's good for jobs in America and good for human rights and the development of democracy in China." https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/textonly/library/hot...

Now, did he really believe that? Was he just selling the American people a bad deal? The end result anyway is that this is precisely the argument that was made, and thousands believed it.

And profiting from it.

This was the predominant geopolitical theory with regards to China for most of the past ~40 years.

I think they always knew this was not going to happen. But how do sell trading with a communist nation after 50 years of Red scare.

There's nothing communist about the CCP any more

Kishore Mahbubani very aptly describes the CCP as the Chinese Civilization Party. That is a much more accurate name.

Your average American voter doesn't know what communism is or whether China is or isn't it.

The might have some notion of "big bad central state", and China was and remains that.

In any event, some rhetoric to grease the wheels politically absolutely was in order.