section_path: History
section_name: History
paragraph_text: History
  
  Historically, China was one of the world's foremost economic powers for most of the two-millennia Pax Sinica from the 1st until the 19th century. China accounted for around one-quarter to one-third of global GDP until the mid-1800s. China's share of global GDP was one-third in 1820 as the Industrial Revolution was beginning in Great Britain. China's GDP in 1820 was six times as large as Britain's, the largest economy in Europe – and almost twenty times the GDP of the nascent United States.
  
  At the end of the Chinese Civil War, the economy was devastated. As the defeated Nationalists fled to Taiwan, they stripped China of liquid assets including gold, silver, and the country's dollar reserves. By the time the KMT was defeated, commerce had been destroyed, the national currency rendered valueless, and the economy was based on barter.
  
  The People's Republic of China's development from one of the poorest countries to one of the largest economies was the quickest of any country.: 11 From 1949 until the Chinese economic reform in 1978, the economy was state-led with market activity remaining underground. Economic reforms began under Deng Xiaoping. China subsequently became the world's fastest-growing major economy, with growth rates averaging 10% over 30 years. Many scholars consider the Chinese economic model as an example of authoritarian capitalism, state capitalism or party-state capitalism under the general secretaryship of Xi Jinping.
  
  China brought more people out of extreme poverty than any other country in history —between 1978 and 2018, China reduced extreme poverty by 800 million. Between 1981 and 2019, the percentage of the population living in extreme poverty decreased from 88.1% to 0.2%. Its current account surplus increased by a factor of 53 between 1982 and 2021, from $5.67 billion to $317 billion. During this time, China also became an industrial powerhouse, moving beyond initial successes in low-wage sectors like clothing and footwear to the increasingly sophisticated production of computers, pharmaceuticals, and automobiles. China's factories generated $3.7 trillion real manufacturing value added, more than the US, South Korea, Germany and the UK combined. China's manufacturing sector benefits from one of the world's largest domestic markets, immense manufacturing scale, and highly developed manufacturing supply chains. It also has two (Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou and Beijing in the 2nd and 3rd spots respectively) of the global top 5 science and technology clusters, which is more than any other country.
  
  China has sustained growth due to export relations, its manufacturing sector, and low-wage workers. China's was the only major world economy to experience GDP growth in 2020, when its GDP increased by 2.3%. However, it posted one of its worst economic performances in decades because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. In 2023, IMF predicted China to continue being one of the fastest growing major economies. China's economy is both a contributor to rising global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions causing climate change and severely affected by its adverse impacts, although its per capita emissions are still much lower than developed economies such as the United States.
  
  Historically, China was one of the world's foremost economic powers for most of the two-millennia Pax Sinica from the 1st until the 19th century. China accounted for around one-quarter to one-third of global GDP until the mid-1800s. China's share of global GDP was one-third in 1820 as the Industrial Revolution was beginning in Great Britain. China's GDP in 1820 was six times as large as Britain's, the largest economy in Europe – and almost twenty times the GDP of the nascent United States.
  
  At the end of the Chinese Civil War, the economy was devastated. As the defeated Nationalists fled to Taiwan, they stripped China of liquid assets including gold, silver, and the country's dollar reserves. By the time the KMT was defeated, commerce had been destroyed, the national currency rendered valueless, and the economy was based on barter.
  
  The People's Republic of China's development from one of the poorest countries to one of the largest economies was the quickest of any country.: 11 From 1949 until the Chinese economic reform in 1978, the economy was state-led with market activity remaining underground. Economic reforms began under Deng Xiaoping. China subsequently became the world's fastest-growing major economy, with growth rates averaging 10% over 30 years. Many scholars consider the Chinese economic model as an example of authoritarian capitalism, state capitalism or party-state capitalism under the general secretaryship of Xi Jinping.
  
  China brought more people out of extreme poverty than any other country in history —between 1978 and 2018, China reduced extreme poverty by 800 million. Between 1981 and 2019, the percentage of the population living in extreme poverty decreased from 88.1% to 0.2%. Its current account surplus increased by a factor of 53 between 1982 and 2021, from $5.67 billion to $317 billion. During this time, China also became an industrial powerhouse, moving beyond initial successes in low-wage sectors like clothing and footwear to the increasingly sophisticated production of computers, pharmaceuticals, and automobiles. China's factories generated $3.7 trillion real manufacturing value added, more than the US, South Korea, Germany and the UK combined. China's manufacturing sector benefits from one of the world's largest domestic markets, immense manufacturing scale, and highly developed manufacturing supply chains. It also has two (Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou and Beijing in the 2nd and 3rd spots respectively) of the global top 5 science and technology clusters, which is more than any other country.
  
  China has sustained growth due to export relations, its manufacturing sector, and low-wage workers. China's was the only major world economy to experience GDP growth in 2020, when its GDP increased by 2.3%. However, it posted one of its worst economic performances in decades because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. In 2023, IMF predicted China to continue being one of the fastest growing major economies. China's economy is both a contributor to rising global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions causing climate change and severely affected by its adverse impacts, although its per capita emissions are still much lower than developed economies such as the United States.
  
  Historically, China was one of the world's foremost economic powers for most of the two-millennia Pax Sinica from the 1st until the 19th century. China accounted for around one-quarter to one-third of global GDP until the mid-1800s. China's share of global GDP was one-third in 1820 as the Industrial Revolution was beginning in Great Britain. China's GDP in 1820 was six times as large as Britain's, the largest economy in Europe – and almost twenty times the GDP of the nascent United States.
  
  At the end of the Chinese Civil War, the economy was devastated. As the defeated Nationalists fled to Taiwan, they stripped China of liquid assets including gold, silver, and the country's dollar reserves. By the time the KMT was defeated, commerce had been destroyed, the national currency rendered valueless, and the economy was based on barter.
  
  The People's Republic of China's development from one of the poorest countries to one of the largest economies was the quickest of any country.: 11 From 1949 until the Chinese economic reform in 1978, the economy was state-led with market activity remaining underground. Economic reforms began under Deng Xiaoping. China subsequently became the world's fastest-growing major economy, with growth rates averaging 10% over 30 years. Many scholars consider the Chinese economic model as an example of authoritarian capitalism, state capitalism or party-state capitalism under the general secretaryship of Xi Jinping.
  
  China brought more people out of extreme poverty than any other country in history —between 1978 and 2018, China reduced extreme poverty by 800 million. Between 1981 and 2019, the percentage of the population living in extreme poverty decreased from 88.1% to 0.2%. Its current account surplus increased by a factor of 53 between 1982 and 2021, from $5.67 billion to $317 billion. During this time, China also became an industrial powerhouse, moving beyond initial successes in low-wage sectors like clothing and footwear to the increasingly sophisticated production of computers, pharmaceuticals, and automobiles. China's factories generated $3.7 trillion real manufacturing value added, more than the US, South Korea, Germany and the UK combined. China's manufacturing sector benefits from one of the world's largest domestic markets, immense manufacturing scale, and highly developed manufacturing supply chains. It also has two (Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou and Beijing in the 2nd and 3rd spots respectively) of the global top 5 science and technology clusters, which is more than any other country.
  
  China has sustained growth due to export relations, its manufacturing sector, and low-wage workers. China's was the only major world economy to experience GDP growth in 2020, when its GDP increased by 2.3%. However, it posted one of its worst economic performances in decades because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. In 2023, IMF predicted China to continue being one of the fastest growing major economies. China's economy is both a contributor to rising global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions causing climate change and severely affected by its adverse impacts, although its per capita emissions are still much lower than developed economies such as the United States.