Charts on China's historical relative share of GDP and other measures beg to differ. Or at least they suggest that the first derivative matters a lot more than snapshot numbers.

Nobody's defending that repression and misguided autocracy weren't pure stupidity and self-flagellation. The 'Great Leap Forward' of the late 50's caused extreme damage to life and economy, compared to the west rebuilding and setting up the first pieces of a transition to the digital economy, and the rest of East Asia gearing up for its own export-driven 'miracle'.

But in general, social and economic things have momentum, and that momentum in infrastructure, technology, education, reserves, everything really, had stagnated and was thus in a downward relative spiral vs a rapidly developing west since the 1800's. After WWII, China had a quarter of the production capacity of the late 20's, a mostly illiterate and increasingly angry rural population, and hyperinflation. There was no golden goose to slaughter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Maddison_statistics_of_t...

https://www.principles.com/the-changing-world-order/#chapter...