Nothing like asking a rhetorical question with no attempt to answer it. The truth is the average Chinese is much freer than they were under Chairman Mao. They don't have political freedom, but they aren't being murdered in the tens of millions anymore, or punished for being educated and can own private property. The government is just an old fashioned crony capitalist dictatorship that uses communism as an excuse to hold power. Nobody really believes in Karl Marx anymore.
There was no uptick in freedom during his time and next to none in his successors time.
When the USSR went belly up the Chi-coms realized it was on a matter of time before they did as well.
So they changed what they needed to so as to survive.
Had nothing to do with "trading".
Xi Jiping has instructed the Party Higher School to teach the elite Confucius.
I have a feeling China will look a lot like Singapore over the next few decades - a highly developed authoritarian country guided by traditional Chinese values.
Your analysis is 99% liberal orthodoxy and has nothing to do with reality.
Understanding what you said is wrong factually and pragmatically is one of the clear things that separates conservatives from liberals.