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by John Ross (Author)
China in 42 years, 1978-2020, far less than a single lifetime, has gone from one of the world's poorest countries, with more than 850 million people living in internationally defined poverty, to the brink of becoming a high-income economy by World Bank standards. It has achieved total elimination of absolute poverty and the world's fastest rise in average living standards - with life expectancy figures showing that its social conditions are even better than this economic result. This achievement, by a wide margin, has improved the position of by far the largest proportion of humanity of any event in human history.
Learning from China's development is of urgent practical interest for all in developing countries. It shows in practice that it is possible to take developing economies and transform them into developed countries by socialist methods in a way far more successful than adopting the path of capitalism - with all the huge gains this means for the life of the people in these countries. Furthermore, China's success has created a huge potential partner for the Global South. In particular, in the coming period 'South-South relations' between China and developing countries will be the progressive pole of world development. The US will continue to pursue an aggressive policy against China with some imperialist countries likely to fall in behind this. China-Global South relations will therefore strengthen with mutual benefit.
