One of the selling points for economic normalization of Chinese relations in the 80s and 90s was the belief that free markets would inevitably lead to our value

One of the selling points for economic normalization of Chinese relations in the 80s and 90s was the belief that free markets would inevitably lead to our values of democracy and civil liberties overpowering the communist values. No one ever considered the opposite effect, that the emmeshed markets would give communists power to push their values on western companies.