Chinese government before being protectionist it was communist and closed: there never was a period without protectionism in China. Chinese economy has always been fully regulated, especially in the 90s. In other words, there is not much sense in your post, and it signals you don't know what you are talking about…
Either-or fallacy. The regulations before proscribed levels of ownership, joint venture requirements, and contraband goods but direct Chinese interference to limit outside interference and benefit local competition have grown a lot worse under Xi compared with Hu and Jiang. Prior to that, China had no choice but to accept FDI join ventures, so for example, that’s why you see lots of Chinese manufactured Fords, Buick’s, Audis, and Volvos driving around. Once they have mastered building quality cars, then they’ll impose quotas and other rules to try and encourage buying local companies over joint ventures.
There was a time when Western companies were flying under the radar during the first half of Hu’s term allowing JV market share to expand significantly.