ALTHOUGH China was the world’s biggest economy for most of the last two millennia, since Britain launched the first Opium War in 1839, the country was reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society. Not for nothing is the ensuing period known by the Chinese as the “century of humiliation,” marked by unequal treaties, foreign aggression, civil wars and ultimately a victorious revolution.
When the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, China was one of the poorest societies on Earth. Illiteracy was as high as life expectancy was low.
The subsequent political trajectory of the People’s Republic essentially falls into two distinct phases, the second commencing with the launch of the policy known as “reform and opening up” from the end of 1978.
