You seem to be under the impression that all of those things matter in realpolitik. They don't. No amount of public pressure prevented the Iraq War or the Vietnam War, both of which were started under false pretences the media and public free as they were bought. China, just like the US, will act in it's interest internationally.
Indeed, generally, domestic opinion is not the most relevant predictor of what a country will do abroad, it's quite minor as most people have little information about foreign policy and are pretty easy to coax into whatever opinion you want, free press or not (see the WMDs, the lead up to the Vietnam War, etc..)
So this is not actually a relevant concern.
Actually, there is a countervailing factor, which is that China will never become a hegemon, they will always be somewhat counterbalanced by the US. So in reality one would expect less bullying for non-aligned nations.
Generally, the US is seen as a bigger threat to democracy and world peace than China, internationally:
> Indeed, generally, domestic opinion is not the most relevant predictor of what a country will do abroad, it's quite minor as most people have little information about foreign policy
Public opinion (and draft, and casualties) did influence US actions quite a bit in the Vietnam era.
But that's not so relevant, because at its peak the cold war was a complex moral situation in which the path didn't matter as much as the goals. In the 70s, the NATO and Soviets were fielding 40,000 nukes and marking the world into two camps. But it'd be a folly to paint them both with the same brush - a world in which the Soviets dominated would be quite unpleasant to live in.
Indeed, generally, domestic opinion is not the most relevant predictor of what a country will do abroad, it's quite minor as most people have little information about foreign policy and are pretty easy to coax into whatever opinion you want, free press or not (see the WMDs, the lead up to the Vietnam War, etc..)
So this is not actually a relevant concern.
Actually, there is a countervailing factor, which is that China will never become a hegemon, they will always be somewhat counterbalanced by the US. So in reality one would expect less bullying for non-aligned nations.
Generally, the US is seen as a bigger threat to democracy and world peace than China, internationally:
https://www.npr.org/2021/05/05/993754397/poll-much-of-the-wo...
https://www.salon.com/2014/01/09/the_top_4_threats_to_global... (from 2013, I assume it got somewhat worse since Trump)