Political Turnaround Stories

Moments when a country, a movement or a policy changed direction, with the numbers, the costs and the caveats.

China · 1975–2025

China 1975–2025: A Poor, Rural Economy Rebuilds Itself

In 1975 China's economy was worth about $164 billion and more than four in five people lived in the countryside. Fifty years on it is a $19-plus trillion economy. What changed, in what order, and what the model now costs.

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China · 1947

The Human Bridge at the Wen River, May 1947

In May 1947, during the Menglianggu campaign, Chinese accounts say a swollen river stopped a reinforcement column and villagers took the doors off their houses to make a bridge. Desperate times, desperate measures: what is documented, what varies between accounts, and what it shows.

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