I think you're over complicating this a bit. Simply put, they first gave their people economic freedoms (and then not all at once) and then started loosening up

I think you're over complicating this a bit. Simply put, they first gave their people economic freedoms (and then not all at once) and then started loosening up in terms of political freedoms. If it takes them 50-100 years, so be it. That actually strikes me as a much more viable approach. You can't really give people freedom if they don't know what to do with it. Not without repercussions at least.