You have to see a lot of their helicopter manufacturing expertise came from Europe like the Z-9 or Z-8 helicopters.
They had also imported S-70 helicopters which are civilian versions of UH-60 BlackHawk from the USA.
This was all prior to the Tianamen incident and the Western weapons embargo.
China would not have had access to modern Russian helicopters until the fall of the USSR in the 1990s.
Only then China had a choice for going with the Mi-28 or variants and they chose otherwise.
The thing is China managed to get enough assistance from the West through backchannels to develop the Z-19 and Z-10.
Had they failed to get such assistance and had the S-70 purchase never happened, perhaps they would have went with Soviet technology. Soviet helicopter engines were manufactured in Ukraine so much like with marine gas turbines I think they could have gotten that technology if they wanted to. Right now I think it makes little sense. They basically already have the capabilities using Western derived technology.
China still lacks a heavy helicopter but that is about it. They do have the triple engine technology of the Z-8 which they upgraded to modern standards, but its engines lack power vs the CH-53K or the newest versions of the Chinook.
