China

China became an independent country in 1949 and was headed by Mao Zedong. He was a communist and felt China needed one party rule. The country was based on agriculture and the people were very poor. The most important thing each day was to find enough to eat. When Mao died in 1976 the country was still poor after 30 years of communist rule. The new leadership under Dung Chow Ping opened the door to the free market and China began its remarkable rise to power. For a thousand years China's GDP per person hovered about $100. In 1980 it began to rise slowly reaching $200 by 1990 and then in 2001 China was admitted to the WTO and that opened world markets like the US. In 2005 the GDP hit $2000 a ten fold increase in 15 years. After that a meteoric rise to $14,000 by 2020. The free market system used in the west and more recently in Asia has moved 1 billion people out of poverty. Another change that accelerated the movement was opening the door to education. Under Mao only party members were educated but in the new system everyone went to school. Under Mao the Chinese communist leadership were told that the west was decadent and capitalism exploited the people. The new leader Dung Chow Ping took a trip to western Europe and his eyes were opened and the saw how backward China was and decided to pattern his economy after the west following the dreaded capitalistic system.