And not ridiculous things that are theoretically possible, like the Taliban does a 180 out of nowhere and converts to socialism and the imperialist states do a 180 out of nowhere and decide that a socialist middle east is cool.
I used to think that the best thing that could happen is a Marshall Plan for the Middle East, but now, I'm not so sure that would be good.
China really does not tend to use economic pressure to get them to reform, it's a key reason that a lot of imperialised nations like Chinese development loans. they don't want outsiders deciding their politics. but that said, yeah I agree and think Chinese development is going to do so much more to build a nation than bombing the shit out of everybody for 20 years