I question this - we had trade with China 120~ years ago
As did other European countries
Trade, some. Still command and control. Maybe a better term would be investment. Nixon opening relations up led to their instituting some free-ish market ideas. That is what has driven their economy since. My understanding is the economy before that was pretty much 3rd world with gov/party telling business what to do. Now business gets to make more of those decisions.
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