Someone once said, "Change is constant". It applies to nature, relationships, and humans. China, as a culture, has been hidden from most of the west for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, observed from the occassional movie such as, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Avatar", "Crazy Rich Asians", and Amy Tan's "Joy Luck CLub", and the myriad of martial arts movies based on iconic figures such as "Bruce Lee".

However, these iconic figures played into more stereotypical western views of Chinese people and their culture.  Within the last twenty to thirty years, due to social media, increased international travel for work and school, as well as a burgeoning Asian student population, western countries have been introduced to a pluralistic view of the Chinese population.  China has, perhaps against the wishes of its own government, became more "open".

Russia had its glasnost and perrestroika under Gorbachev which signaled a type of political and economic reform. From these two policies, economic reform has had the greatest impact on the Russian people. China appears to follow a similar trajectory. Russia's parliament appeared to tighten controls on political plurality just as China has.

Neither country wanted an "Arab Spring" at their doorstep and seeks to control the social and political narrative.

In this sense, China has actively waged a "culture competition" with the United States as it main competitor .

China appears to focus on continents and regions where the United States has not changed it approach or policy. Thus, neglecting to adapt has left a void for countries like China to come in and develop economic policy and influence politics, with varying degrees of success.

Open in the sense that censorship can not stop a population from sending and receiving outside news