China has as great a chance (and as little chance) as anyone else. Kingmakers and would be emperors have to make some serious decisions as their nation grows and develops: Do they go the autocratic dictator route and withhold civil liberties, or do they extend civil liberties outward, so that satellite colonies and conquered territories are more tolerant of imperial rule? History teems with examples of both, often from the same empire in different eras.

It's not new, from the tolerance of other religions and customs by Xerxes I to the republic of SPQR. Heck, even France tried constitutional monarchy with the Bourbon restoration, so long as the Napoleonic code (defining civil rights and the rule of law) was preserved. Charlie X decided to stop that civil liberties nonsense and the people of France rolled out the guillotines once again.

This is something I bring up as a difference between the Islamic State as a hypothetical to which Islamists aspire to, and the Islamic State as it is practiced in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant; the latter clings harshly to Shariah law. Contrast the Iran during the Pahlavi era (the result of famine and revolution forming a new imperial republic) which established a code of civil rights (only US oil interests had to meddle)

China is about to have an opportunity to become the world superpower, or an eastern adversary to Post-NATO Europe, and right now, democracy in the EU and UK are weakened by the same long-term reign of corporatist neoliberal parties (King Log) that are opposed by far-right nationalist movements which are gaining traction... or were until Trump reminded everyone of what fascist autocracy looks like.

If China decides not to develop its humanity and civil liberties game, then those neoliberal parties will last a while longer while drifting to the right, until the nationalist take hold and they have a Big Fat War (not to be confused with WWIII or Nuclear War). But by then, the climate crisis will be extreme enough to make the future too chaotic to predict. This is why China is leading the sustainable energy race (and because Trump kisses the feet of Koch and big oil, the US is reversing course).

This is all backed by the ethics theory of the social contract: So long as the public is comfortable they'll adhere to the laws of the land and play by the king's rules. Suffering breeds discontent and organized resistance.