Felix SalmonVerified account

I read it as saying China had been a backwater? Not that it now is one?

There's no point in the past 1,000 years and beyond in which China could be called a backwater.

I think there have been multiple points in the last 1000 years when China, for all its massive size and all the great contributions China has made to the world before and after, has had remarkably little impact on or connection to the world outside its borders?

Is the frontwater...Mars?

Article’s about China’s development into the current economic powerhouse after the calamities of the cultural revolution. So, the notification is ... accurate?

Nope. “Backwater” might describe, oh, Cuba. Not the most populous nation on Earth. (The Cultural Revolution, though terrible, did not cut deep; nowhere near, say, the Taiping Rebellion)

When Mao died in 1976, China was in an economic and political malaise. The survival of the regime was very much in doubt. Despite it’s population, China had a very small effect on world affairs & was certainly in backwater territory.

Odd: The PRC has done an incredible job climbing out of a hole dug by the CCP, with per capita of ~$7,400. Across the strait, the Republic of China (Taiwan) is about $25,000–with enormous freedoms and respect for the individual. The China dream is an ROC dream.

Respect for the individual is getting rid of homelessness, food insecurity, lack of clean water. Taiwan doesn't fulfill that so they don't have respect for every individual human. They're not even trying to fix homelessness. Freedom under capitalism is a one sided analysis.

ROC per capita GDP is 3 times that of the PRC; Taiwan also takes care of their own while allowing for freedom, liberty, and dignity of the individual. China could learn a lot from this example

Again have they abolished homelessness? Have they abolished sexism? Or racism? I do not know any individual liberty until there is plenty for all and the structures of racism and sexism are dissolved.

Keep on dreaming