Apparently China was a second world country - even with Soviet-Chinese conflict. Granted the USSR was around then and their communism was standard "authoritaria

Apparently China was a second world country - even with Soviet-Chinese conflict. Granted the USSR was around then and their communism was standard "authoritarian's figleaf archetype" instead of "laughably obvious lie like democratic in the name of a dictatorship". Of course the definition of 1st world = NATO aligned, rarely used numerically 2nd = Soviet aligned, and 3rd = Unalligned has been effectively replaced by connotation of advancement with 1st as post industrial, the once again rarely used as number 2nd as developing or industrial, and 3rd as undeveloped or unindustrialized.