I have no idea what type of history and political science you have available in China but it is not as simple as you have it said here.
Basically mainland China at the end of the 2nd WW had a civil war between the Communist Party led by Mao and the Nationalist Party (for democracy) led by General Chiang Kai-shek.
Mao won and China became a Communist led totalitarian government supported by Russia.
The Nationalist were allowed to retreat to Taiwan where they established the free Nationalist Party supported by many FREE nations incl USA, England, etc.
How much money then and now is not important as it has been in the billions over the years but the P R of China remains a Communist nation which is slowly changing (maybe quickly?) to a Capitalistic Communist country which usually leads to a country becoming a FREE Democratic nation just as Russia has done.
It also isn't important if they do or do not right now as they are allowing many foreign nations to conduct free enterprise business in China, it may or may not continue in the long run only time will tell.
Note that as of now China has the MOST amount of new Millionaires and Billionaires in the world. Yetb you also have one of the Poorest lower class of people in the world.
This is just a short and general overview, there is a lot more.
If you are able? Google/BING or whatever for in depth history and political and economical info on - in the past, present and possible future of the P R of China.
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