SocietyEast Asia
The People's Republic of China
A quarter of humanity changes system
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Life expectancy rose sharply through basic health care and literacy, while the Great Leap Forward brought a famine in which tens of millions died, and the Cultural Revolution destroyed institutions and lives. The reforms from 1978 then lifted several hundred million out of poverty — the fastest reduction in poverty in history.
For children
After twenty years of civil war and Japanese occupation the Communist Party won, and the People's Republic of China was proclaimed in 1949. It was the end of the "century of humiliation" — and the start of a period of both advance and catastrophe.
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