That's what I took from the article - despite the intent of the author, maybe. There's a warning in there - the Chinese model may become attractive to many countries and movements and we - liberal democrats - need to fix our weaknesses to stay competitive.
https://twitter.com/wwwojtekk/status/1346465992273088513
I think that this is a serious concern. Liberal democracy is in crisis in the "west" too. This doesn't mean it's doomed, of course - but we need to reevaluate the economic and social policies of the last decades to protect the freedoms we value, because China HAS changed.
Liberal democracies have largely sat on their laurels and people have a stereotypical view of China that doesn't correspond to reality - China is no centrally planned clusterfuck, it's a thriving and dynamic country which poses significant challenges to the US.
The liberal democratic system is undoubtedly better for the human and civil rights of its citizens. It's not enough to offer more freedoms than other regimes, though, to keep the citizens on your side. People and societies need more than just that.
We shouldn't sacrifice and should defend human and civil rights from illiberal trends from inside and outside the liberal democratic bloc. We also need to understand what motivates those illiberal trends, to better counter them.
Liberal democracy isn't a gift of a benevolent god, or a state of nature. It's a political system, a good system but that like every system needs to be implemented well. Countries need improvements and maintenance. China has invested in growing and improving. Have we?
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