What did China do to move from being an extremely poor country to becoming a global superpower?

Not many decades ago, in 1949, China It was a poor, war-stricken country. At that time, Mao Zedong came to power, thus establishing the triumph of the communists in this Asian country.

NOW, 75 years later, China is one of the most powerful and richest countries in the world.

As explained by BBC World , The “economic miracle” that saved the country from ruin was not the work of Mao Zedong, but of a campaign promoted by another communist leader: Deng Xiaoping.

According to official figures, this plan – called “Reform and Opening” – He succeeded in lifting 740 million people out of poverty in China.

This is what the leader did to make his country a world power.

Deng Xiaoping was one of the most important leaders of the Communist Party during the era of Mao Zedong. He studied in France and the Soviet Union, but returned to China during the war.

In 1978, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) was $150 billion for more than 800 million citizens. Nothing, compared to the $18 trillion it scored in 2022, according to United Nations figures.

At that time, Mao Zedong left a complex legacy: he founded the People’s Republic of China, but his attempts to improve the country’s economy did not work.

On the contrary, according to BBC, caused a famine where at least 10 million people died and brought about the Cultural Revolution, being convinced that there were “secret capitalists” in the country, causing millions of deaths.

In 1976, Mao Zedong died of a series of heart attacks.

But then, Deng Xiaoping, who was general secretary of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), decided to propose a radical change.

After receiving the country in a terrible state, Deng developed a plan “socialism with Chinese characteristics” and promoted various economic reforms: He focused on agriculture, on the liberalization of the private sector, on the modernization of industry and on the opening of the country to foreign trade.

Economic modernization was the top priority.

The more conservative members of the Communist Party, however, disagreed with Deng’s changes. Over the years, reforms began to take place and the results surprised everyone.

The Maoist system (referring to Mao Zedong) was gradually modified in various sectors, such as agriculture, and Productivity more than increased, several regions of the country were able to escape poverty, and labor migration was encouraged. to cities across the country.

In addition, The country opened up to foreign investment for the first time since the founding of the People’s Republic.

Thus, the different regions of China progressed and modernized, even if We have always recalled that it was a “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, to follow, in part, the model of socialism.

These new efforts have made it possible, for example, to transform the city of Shenzhen into “Chinese Silicon Valley”.

Already in 2001, THE World Trade Organization accepted the entry of China, and thus the opening of the doors to globalization was consolidated which, today, is one of the most powerful weapons the Asian country has.

At present, It is considered “the factory of the world” which managed to survive even the global financial crises.

Concerning political change, experts from BBC They assure that, Although China’s economic success in recent decades is indisputable, the reforms promoted by Deng Xiping have also had serious consequences in the country.

The main problems, in the eyes of the different governments of the world, are serious air pollution in most of its cities, but also the inequalities generated over the years.

Faced with this, China has decided to make efforts to reduce its emissions and, according to a report from the University of Chicago Energy Policy Institute (EPIC) in the United States, between 2013 and 2020, The Asian country has managed to reduce particles by 40%.

The second problem, inequality, according to different sources of BBC It is also said to have experienced a “significant decline” over the last decade, after reaching its highest level in the 2000s.

But There is a third problem: it is the political system that China manages and that the different countries of the world hate. : the Chinese government is rigid and even human rights crackdowns have been reported more and more serious.

According to different reviews, The current Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, excessively limits the freedoms of the population and thus becomes more and more powerful.

This “dark side” was not recognized by Xi. In fact, on the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the president said: A “bright” future awaits China, which has moved from poverty to prosperity “in all aspects” in recent decades.

In the immediate aftermath, several groups of protesters demanding political reforms to China’s rigid system established decades ago were pacified by law enforcement, but the number of deaths caused by the protests was never made clear.

Deng Xiaoping’s reforms bore fruit and positioned the country as a global power. The cost in terms of human rights seems to be ignored by the authorities.