The heros in the story of Chinas amazing numbers of people lifted out of poverty is Deng Xiaoping and his successors. They've been basically thrown out with Xi.

The heros in the story of Chinas amazing numbers of people lifted out of poverty is Deng Xiaoping and his successors. They've been basically thrown out with Xi. So modern China is unfortunately on the totally wrong trajectory. It's ok to say "China was going the right direction between years X and Y" without being an "apologist".