My intention here isn’t to advocate communism. Rather it’s to demonstrate that, just as the state was crucial in defeating infectious diseases in late-nineteenth-century Britain, it was also vitally important in China’s escape from the poverty trap in the late twentieth century. Yet we must not overlook the massive downsides to the Chinese model of development. The improvements in health and wealth have been achieved despite an Orwellian disregard for individual freedom and human rights—from the Great Leap Forward to the present-day treatment of the Uighurs, and of course the response to
...more
