>>150302691
Geopolitics stopped them, and China never really pushed for it as much as they could have since they wanted to be "ready". Their plan was to become a serious football nation first, with a strong league and good youth development. But they never got past the "use tons of money on foreign players" stage
If China really wanted, FIFA would try to give it to them. But they are too scared of sucking off China and the US at once and losing both over it, so they focus on the US for now. They've already done a lot of shilling for China (for example by calling them the inventors of football multiple times), but with China and the US getting more aggressive towards each other, the train has slowed a bit