We (the west) helped them become who they are. We relocated all our production there because they were cheap and didn't mind throwing a bunch of poor people into the grinder. Arguably, the fastest and most efficient way for them to get out from under our thumb was authoritarian rule. Democratic rule would've been torpedoed by the US or one of its European vassals in favour of an authoritarian one we installed.
The world could've looked very different had the US not meddled in a lot of countries. Here's an entire list that probably has about 70 countries on it.
That sentence still makes it sound like you think the US has been unilaterally directing western colonialism, but European nations have independently taken the initiative on that quite a bit
It's ridiculing the lack of agency European countries chose to have when being pulled into various wars and missions with the US. The comment additionally starts off with "We (the west)". If Europe doesn't belong to "the west", then where do they belong to?
That sentence takes away agency from those European "vassals". The British and French empires still exist to this day. They conduct their own foreign policy and are in charge of their own internal security and territorial integrity.
The person you're responding to is absolutely right.
No. Just because the US has become worse than before and China didn't, even if the US closed in on how bad China is, that doesn't make China better than the US. More reliable, yes, but not better.