ABSTRACT
Measured by purchasing power parity, China surpassed the United States and reclaimed the title to the world’s largest economy in 2014; 124 years after China lost the title to the United States in 1890. For many centuries before modern times, China had accounted for about one quarter of the global economic output. The Maoist era largely succeeded in stabilizing China’s relative position in the capitalist world system, bringing China’s long-term decline to an end and preparing the economic and social conditions for the Chinese economic miracle that started in the late twentieth century. In the Maoist era, China remained a part of the capitalist world system. For both economic and geopolitical reasons, China was compelled to play the game of economic growth in order to improve her relative position in the capitalist world system. The downward trend of China’s rate of accumulation that has emerged since 2010 seems to confirm the new reality.
