China was, for a few years, rapidly modernizing and a relatively open society, unless you were notably politically active. That's not exactly "freedom" but it wasn't a pervasive surveillance state run by a president-for-life. Nor were they a serious military threat to anyone, much less Taiwan or Japan. I saw this firsthand interacting with people in tech in China.

The US <cough>Obama</cough> was too optimistic about the effects of trade engagement with China (and Russia) and now we get some whiplash making up for lost time.