[ifinnegan]

“Under Mao, there were no privately owned businesses of any kind, not even mom and pop shops”

Interesting how baldly you lie and distort things.

Why?

[ek_hornbeck]

I'll make this really simple for you. The private sector in China today accounts for about 60-70% of its GDP, depending on whose estimates you want to believe (World Bank vs. CIA vs. various other sources ). Under Mao, the contribution of the private sector to China's GDP was effectively 0.

Now, show me some evidence that the private sector in China under Mao was what it is today before calling me a liar. As to the argument that their private sector is "not really" private because of all of their bureaucracy, regulations, subsidies, price/wage controls, and other market distortions created by the state, I agree. Similar market distortions exist in the US and they exist severalfold more in many European countries and in Latin America (Mexico being a prime example). Market distortions and crony capitalism are not equivalent to Communism, unless you wish to claim that most of the world is "Communist."