没有共产党就没有新中国
Oh we should also talk about their entire coastal region we’re devistaed by land war and Japanese occupation.
What can be said is that, given this set of very difficult challenges, whether self-induced or not, the outcome, such as it is, is a commendable one.
Still, I can't help but be happy at how so many people's lives have improved so greatly in such a short time.
Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China
But considering the party that the communists replaced were the Nationalists... who are in control of Taiwan.. which is even richer per capita than China (31k/person)... that seems unlikely.
Can you explain more why the Nationalists were successful in Taiwan, but you believe they wouldn't have been in China?
Edit: this is not to say that I believe the Nationalists would have been more successful than the Communists in China.. China is certainly a far larger task, both in building out a larger country and pulling more poeple out of poverty. So this is a sincere question about your opinion on the nationalists.
With that said, I can think of two (good) reasons people might think that China's current rise could not have happened under the Nationalists.
1. The Nationalists were extremely poor at stamping out corruption and warlordism. China appears to have been too large a region for them to competently exercise control. Their success in Taiwan therefore may be partly attributable to a smaller landmass over which they were more capable of exercising competent hegemony.
2. Taiwan's success is partly a result of their gradual liberalisation. It's hard to say whether this same liberalisation could have taken place on the mainland.
That said, like I mentioned, I think it's hard to argue that China wouldn't have been better off. Certainly in the short term. Without the Communists taking power you avoid every atrocity under Mao. That alone is hard to offset with any later (pseudo-)unity and progress.
And so on... it's a fascinating sequence of hypotheticals.
I think that the role US money played in Taiwan's success is vastly overplayed anyway. The US basically abandoned them to their fate until the Korean war kicked off.
It's always a fascinating set of hypotheticals like you said.
Also we can compare how a nationalist, democratic, and capitalist country of similar size, population, colonial explotation, and natural resource wealth would fair in India. Which again makes the PRC come out rosey.