Domestic markets can make a country an economic power when you have a population of a massive 1.4 billion and have by far the world's biggest car market, mart phones market, HDTV market, meat market and the biggest market for almost everything else. The days when the Chinese had to sell to America to survive are long gone.
“Domestic markets can make a country an economic power when you have a population of a massive 1.4 billion...”
Not really. There is an essential difference between domestic industries selling to a domestic market vs selling to international markets. Selling domestically is just shuffling the wealth you produce around your own economy, which is good, but it isn’t as good for your economy as taking wealth from another country’s economy and injecting it into yours. Also, you only have one domestic market, while selling internationally gives you access to many markets, thus more demand, which equals higher prices and profits.
And of course, to sell domestically, your people must actually have money to buy the goods you are producing, which the Chinese people wouldn’t have without Western companies paying their salaries. Certainly the Communist run native companies are not going to pick up that slack if they cut ties to the West.