People thought that China would be unchangeable before Mao took over too. They are becoming expansionist; Obama encouraged them to start going into the South China Sea with their artificial islands and acting aggressively towards US allies like the Philippines. (Of course, Obama had no problem appointing Maoists to his cabinet, until Fox News exposed him.)
The worst thing that we could have done with Red China was what Nixon did. That was one of the goals of the communists, listed in W. Cleon Skousen’s book, “The Naked Communist”.
Yes....awaking China & then having Clinton build their military up was suicidal.
We could have supported Hong Kong independence when it could have been done but now it’s China and part of the problem.