Or, not quite: the workers are being exploited just like they were during the colonial period. But at least now their rulers have power over our rulers that they didn't have before. So they get to be happy about that as they make novelty items out of toxic plastic for Temu.
Anyway, the answer is both. They were being exploited 60+ years ago, and they're still being exploited now, regardless of if they can take the train away from the factory that they work at to visit their relatives over the holidays.
The government is still horrible, that’s unlikely to change but foreign markets aren’t the issue.
It is easier to think poor quality of life is ok for people you cannot identify with.
The CCP was objectively the worst government across thousands of years, and foreign markets didn’t fix the underlying problems but they helped the general population in a way the government was never going to without them.