4 ms·

Yeah, for example Japan had crazy rate of growth for quite a while after WW2.

BurningFrog 7y ago
Japan already was a rich industrialized nation before WW2. China was one of the poorest countries on earth in the 1980s.
- pjc50 7y ago
  China was a nuclear power since 1964. Part of the reason Nixon had to go there in the first place.
  - BurningFrog 7y ago
    True, but you can't eat nuclear bombs. China was a communist military dictatorship. All resources went to the military, while millions starved to death.
- learc83 7y ago
  >Japan already was a rich industrialized nation before WW2. Look at the previous century and how quickly they modernized. As for other examples of extreme growth this century. Look at South Korea, Taiwan, the USSR etc... China shows a difference in scale due to population size, but it's growth rate was certainly not unprecedented.
  - BurningFrog 7y ago
    I actually think it is unprecedented! Not only was China poor on an African level. It had a communist command economy. Compare to how the former Soviet block countries have floundered in the same period, despite starting from a higher economic level. Maybe South Korea and Taiwan are comparable, I don't know. China's rise is still by its size the biggest event in world history the last 30 years. And no one in 1989 would have predicted it.
    - learc83 7y ago
      >Maybe South Korea and Taiwan are comparable, I don't know. China's rise is still by its size... That's what I said. Other developing countries have grown just as fast or faster. The difference is that China happens to have the largest population in the world. >Not only was China poor on an African level. It had a communist command economy. Compare to how the former Soviet block countries have floundered in the same period, despite starting from a higher economic level. China voluntarily introduced capitalism in a controlled fashion. Former Soviet countries were the remnants of a collapsed nation. They aren't particularly comparable during the time period you're looking at.

Japan already was a rich industrialized nation before WW2. China was one of the poorest countries on earth in the 1980s.

pjc50 7y ago
China was a nuclear power since 1964. Part of the reason Nixon had to go there in the first place.
- BurningFrog 7y ago
  True, but you can't eat nuclear bombs. China was a communist military dictatorship. All resources went to the military, while millions starved to death.
learc83 7y ago
>Japan already was a rich industrialized nation before WW2. Look at the previous century and how quickly they modernized. As for other examples of extreme growth this century. Look at South Korea, Taiwan, the USSR etc... China shows a difference in scale due to population size, but it's growth rate was certainly not unprecedented.
- BurningFrog 7y ago
  I actually think it is unprecedented! Not only was China poor on an African level. It had a communist command economy. Compare to how the former Soviet block countries have floundered in the same period, despite starting from a higher economic level. Maybe South Korea and Taiwan are comparable, I don't know. China's rise is still by its size the biggest event in world history the last 30 years. And no one in 1989 would have predicted it.
  - learc83 7y ago
    >Maybe South Korea and Taiwan are comparable, I don't know. China's rise is still by its size... That's what I said. Other developing countries have grown just as fast or faster. The difference is that China happens to have the largest population in the world. >Not only was China poor on an African level. It had a communist command economy. Compare to how the former Soviet block countries have floundered in the same period, despite starting from a higher economic level. China voluntarily introduced capitalism in a controlled fashion. Former Soviet countries were the remnants of a collapsed nation. They aren't particularly comparable during the time period you're looking at.