Free market is not a religion that everyone has to follow. That was just a set of conventions that people follow if they benefit from it. As soon as China and other free countries [1] realized they can follow other rules that are more beneficial to them, they naturally shifted to that model.
[1] There are countries that do things that are more beneficial to someone else than own interests, but they don't count as free.
Parts of Spain have a history of anarchism and syndicalism, with an explicit recognition that it was a way to fight back against an economic system that was taking advantage of them.[1]
Chile tried to do something similar when they realized a lot of their mines were owned by US companies, they elected a new leader who was going to nationalize the mines, but then the US govt backed a coup to overthrow him and install a dictator.[2]
[1] There are countries that do things that are more beneficial to someone else than own interests, but they don't count as free.