In 1981, around 88% of China's population live in extreme poverty, or under $1.90 a day.

By the late 2010s, this was under 1%.

So in absolute numbers, somewhere between 800 million and 1 billion people were lifted out of extreme poverty over roughly four decades

in China. That's the largest and fastest such reduction in human history by a significant margin.

So does that fact vindicate the Communist Party of China? And if so, what policies and positions does it vindicate? In the 1980s,

Deng Xiaoping liberalized the Chinese economy, allowing freer trade and profit-making by entrepreneurs,

and that means that neoliberals will argue China's rise proves free markets work.

But the Chinese state also kept a great degree of control in government hands, and the state

remained thoroughly Leninist. So is its rise a vindication of the left? Or perhaps you might be

watching this thinking, I've got this all the wrong way around. Perhaps China's rise should not be a

vindication of any ideology because China's rise was built on the

backs of suppressed labor and authoritarian politics. In that case, should China be precisely

an example of how not to run a country? Now, I find these questions personally fascinating.

I spend a lot of time thinking about them. And given China looks set to dominate the 21st century,

they aren't questions anyone can afford to ignore. And I had the perfect guest to talk them over.

Yosteen Hauger is assistant professor in development economics at Cambridge University.

He's written extensively about China and could often be found arguing with China Hawks on Twitter. Like me,

Yosteen has just come back from a trip to China. So we also discussed some of our experiences

there. Yostin Hauger, welcome to Navarra Media. Great to be here. Great style, by the way. Can't

go wrong. Black T-shirt, shaved head, stubble. Yeah, doing my best Michael Walker impression.

Representation is important.

You are assistant professor in development at Cambridge University.

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