The way I see it, it's both a government and Sinophobia issue.

I don't think US will suddenly "love" China if it becomes a democracy. The reason is because the US is directly competing with China and for the first time in modern US history, there is a legit challenger to US international power. Other Sinosphere countries (Japan, SK, Taiwan, Singapore) were never a legit threat to dethrone the US as the world superpower. However, Japan did go through a very similar period in US relations as China is going through now.

Back in the 1980s, Japan was portrayed as the greatest economic threat to the United States, and allegations of intellectual property theft were only part of Americans' vilification. Thirty years later, Americans have made China the villain, when, just like three decades ago, they should be looking squarely in the mirror.

“When governments permit counterfeiting or copying of American products, it is stealing our future, and it is no longer free trade.” So said US President Ronald Reagan, commenting on Japan after the Plaza Accord was concluded in September 1985.

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/for-america-chi...

Trade issues with Japan dominated relationships, especially the threat that American automobile and high tech industries would be overwhelmed. Japan's economic miracle emerged from a systematic program of subsidized investment in strategic industries—steel, machinery, electronics, chemicals, autos, shipbuilding, and aircraft.[114][115] During Reagan's first term Japanese government and private investors held a third of the debt sold by the US Treasury, providing Americans with hard currency used to buy Japanese goods.[116] In March 1985 the Senate voted 92–0 in favor of a Republican resolution that condemned Japan's trade practices as "unfair" and called on President Reagan curb Japanese imports.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan%E2%80%93United_States_re...

Sound familiar?

US will "love" China again not when it becomes a democracy, but when it poses no socioeconomic threat to the US.

There wasn't this much anti-CCP, anti-China sentiment until China started competing directly with the US in high value services and products. As soon as China graduated from being the cheap factory for the US, we've been seeing more and more anti-China propaganda.

The CCP was probably the right government for China. Governing a billion uneducated, mostly farmers was going to be hard no matter what form of government. CCP made a lot of difficult, unfair, and a lot of forward thinking choices. It pulled a billion people out of poverty in a span of a few decades.

The most direct comparison I can think of is India - which has had a democracy and a population similar to China's. You should look up the GDP per capita growth between the two countries. Chinese citizens are now far better off than Indian citizens without a democracy.

That said, I believe that China should and probably will eventually become a democracy. I think their population will demand it eventually. But right now? China's economy is still growing and the living standards of its people are still getting better. CCP is not going away for this simple reason.