The 20th Century was a disaster for China , Mao Zedong ruined the place - Jim Rogers

Jim Rogers: "It is not that I am attracted to China. It is that I see what is happening in China. I see the enormous changes that are taking place in China. I hope I would have thought that I would have seen the same sort of promise in Britain in 1807 – and seen that the UK was going to emerge on the world scene in a big way. I would hope I'd have detected the same promise in 1907 as regards America. Few people saw anything in the UK in 1807. Few people saw anything happening in America in 1907. The country was bankrupt in 1907, totally corrupt – Wall Street, Washington, everywhere. Yet, in fact, America was on the verge of becoming the greatest success of the 20th century.

Again, things change. If you study history you can see that. China has had recurring periods of greatness three or four times in the last few thousand years. Britain was great once, Egypt was great once, and Rome was great once. China has been great three or four times. It's a resilient country, and we can see that now. For 300 years China was in decline. In fact, a few hundred years ago, China's Emperor destroyed all the big sailing ships. They had vessels that had been to America, to Africa. They were sailing around the world long before Columbus. And yet the Emperor decided the China was not going to travel across seas anymore. He destroyed all the ships, destroyed all the maps, destroyed the records, destroyed everything. China, as could be expected, went into decline.

The 20th Century was a disaster for China. Mao Zedong may have been a great guerilla warrior but he ruined the place. It was in total collapse until Deng Xiaoping came along and started reversing what amounted to hundreds of years of decline."
Via thedailybell