>Maybe South Korea and Taiwan are comparable, I don't know. China's rise is still by its size...

That's what I said. Other developing countries have grown just as fast or faster. The difference is that China happens to have the largest population in the world.

>Not only was China poor on an African level. It had a communist command economy. Compare to how the former Soviet block countries have floundered in the same period, despite starting from a higher economic level.

China voluntarily introduced capitalism in a controlled fashion. Former Soviet countries were the remnants of a collapsed nation. They aren't particularly comparable during the time period you're looking at.