What China achieved in reducing their poverty numbers is worth admiring. Between 1978 – 2021, China lifted 800 million people out of extreme poverty. Unprecedented in human history.
Unlike its other peers who 100x-ed their GDP in the last 100 years, China didn’t have the luxury of being a city state like Singapore or HK. Neither did it have a direct market access to world’s largest economies like what Japan & S Korea had with US and West.
It is even more praise worthy when you realize that China managed to steer a juggernaut of a country with myriad of problems – a communist nation, the worlds most populous nation at that time, a country in abject poverty, no natural resources and not viewed too favorably by the western powers.
Here’s some numbers what they achieved:
1. By 2000, China had already reduced its extreme poverty rate from 88% in 1981 to 49%.
2. In 2015, China contributed to over 70% of global poverty reduction.
3. In 2021, China announced it had eradicated extreme poverty nationwide.
Lets look at this again: From 88% of your population in extreme poverty in 1981 to GDP per capita at $10,000 by 2019.
Now there are questions on the reliability of these numbers – but thats a different topic. Even so the variance wouldn’t be too far off. Their cities looks like literal cutouts from the future. Their engineering brilliance with electric automobiles, the manufacturing juggernaut that they built out, and the modern cities are all interesting stories that we all should be learning from. You cannot achieve all this with fake numbers.
And of course this came at a huge price: Lack of freedom and total dictatorship. We have read the stories, from the horrors of the Cultural Revolution to the Tiannamen Square massacre, its a long list. Not to mention their screwed up demography.
So was the price worth it? The question is of a moral tone. To which no-one will have a clear answer.
Do you wish to live in a dictatorship with no freedom to speak your mind or express yourself, or not see your family sleep hungry? How can someone answer this?