Why has China developed?

Answer 1

Broadly speaking, China has developed so rapidly for 2 main reasons:

1. Mass labor & strong government.

In the 1940's the revolution, led by Mao, installed a strong communist political system across China. This powerful, autocratic system gave the government the ability to enact huge reforms across the country, and mobilize hundreds of millions of workers as they wished.

The extent of this can be seen with the "Great Leap Forward" initiative from 1958-61 where huge populations were displaced, sent to the countrysides to pursue a self-reliant communist farming economy cut off from international trade. While truly great in scale, the flawed strategy led to mass starvation - but nevertheless, the political framework was in place.

2. Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms.

The Chinese economy began to boom in the 1970/80s, when Deng Xiaoping came into power.

Following the pragmatic principle of "Black cat, white cat, it doesn't matter so long as it catches the rat" he suggested that it doesn't matter if a policy is communist or capitalist so long as it works.

As a result he led huge economic reforms across China, allowing privatization of businesses, and opening major coastal cities to foreign trade and investment - e.g. Shenzhen.

Result.

The strong government framework from the communist revolution has enabled succeeding leaders to take china on a capitalist course of development. By opening their mass, cheap labor force up to foreign businesses, China was able to attract great foreign currency reserves, capture technological and management skills, and build a strong economy of their own.