horse of george

In response to Niall Ferguson essay on how the current economic crisis will perforce cause a change in the rules governing relations between China and US viz dollar valuations and trade and competition etc I ask, possibly in the manner of 'what I know simply, I simply don't know' - is it true that if China stops pegging its dollar, allowing it to rise against US currency and thusly supposedly mitigating trade imbalance between the two countries - won't Chinese consumers then be required to purchase American products and services which in turn will require a lifting of restrictions on the citizenry and engender a need for an embrace of Western values concerning individual rights and freedoms etc etc much in the manner of post war Japan? Since China has benefited a great deal from an artificially valued currency and fears the consequences of liberalization, doesn't that indicate a conflict is brewing here? Simply can't know limited as I am to only knowing it simply - seems like a problem to me though. I imagine there are several reasons why post war Japan was willing to adopt western values - but certainly one of them was that their past had been significantly discredited - can we really expect any significant liberalization in China without a similar discrediting?