>do not say specifically say that the period before the First Opium War is what they mean,they don't offer other clues as to the time period.

The post is a reaction to the article, describing how the tea trade led to a capitalist system which later fell to Communism. There's no ambiguity.

So in your view, there was a transition from mercantilism to capitalism following the First Opium War? And then a transition to communism thereafter?

It's not really "my view," but I read a rather convincing argument for it.

https://aeon.co/essays/the-china-tea-trade-was-a-paradox-of-...

It doesn't make sense to say that British imperialism led to communism from capitalism, if the starting point without British imperialism was mercantilism.

>Only with the rise and victory of the Communist Party in 1949, the nationalist lore goes, could the original shame of military defeat and colonialism be redeemed

That's how the nationalist lore goes...but what makes it the truth?

It's part of the ideology that drove their actions. How would one even attempt to show the statement was true? Either way, the era called capitalist should be clear.

The question of whether British imperialism drove China away from capitalism is a historical question. Because the Chinese system was mercantilist before British imperialism, it isn't right to say that British imperialism drove China away from capitalism. If old ideology said that, it's incorrect, and we do the world a disservice by repeating it.