China has in fact not been employing the same strategy for 40 years. That would be foolish. Different developmental stages require different strategies. As China's economy matures, the strategy is increasingly changing to that of opening up.

The move to open up their markets, and to allow majority-foreign ownership, began way before the trade war. It was already ongoing in 2014: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-25647808

China signed a major investment deal with the EU last month. China made major concessions. Unlike Trump, who with his "tough on China" tactics only managed to antagonize China and didn't get a proper trade deal, the EU got the sort of concessions that Trump was after, by being properly diplomatic.

This is the problem with the US attitude of treating China as an enemy. I also have no idea where all the "engaging with China is a failed strategy" and crowd comes from: the EU literally showed you that engagement works better than antagonization and coercion! Facts literally show you that China was already opening up before Trump!