@Berenger: Old thread, I'll rather do it here if you don't mind.
Cause the leaders decided they kind of didn't want to lose their heads Romania-style?
Dunno, makes sense.
Doubt that could ever happen. Mao Zedong wasn't an idiot like Ceaușescu.
Chinese exchanged communism with capitalism decades ago but most people still think they are communist state.
I have very high opinion of Chinese folks because they seem to be only people smart enough to figure out what's wrong with communism.
You see, communism is a lot better than capitalism in early stages. Provides huge economic growth because its very violent in the begging, in most cases communism turned family members and friends against each other and replaced their love for those that were close to them with love towards state and whole nation. That's why people worked for free and with passion to build a country in early stages of communism in Russia, Yugoslavia, Cuba and other South American countries.
In capitalism it's all about individual, you have to give your best to survive and create something for yourself. It's hard to persuade large groups of people to work together towards the same goal because each one of them is working to accomplish his own goals. There's no morale boost, unity and things you see in early stages of communism.
Then why communism fails, you ask me? It's pretty damn simple. That initial sparkle doesn't last forever. Whole idea of communism is to make system where everyone will enjoy, and people work hard only at the beginning to build a foundation. Later they become lazy and that is exactly the reason why every state based on communism failed so far.
There's no such issue with capitalism, it's constant. You need work at early stage, you need to work always if you want to survive. You stop working hard and you're in a trouble.
Mao or someone close to him figured that out and changed the system to capitalism before it was too late. Now they are great country, growing day by day because they were smart unlike almost every other country that lived in communism.
What's the point of all of this?
If you want your country to grow, you should embrace communism in a way every else did. Make it as bloody as possible but build the faith and raise morale of the people. After 5 to 10 years max ditch it for capitalism and your country will prosper more than it could if you start with just capitalism.