The Remarkable Results of Free Markets, Free Trade and Free People

China's markets and its people are not completely free, but they have come a long way in 30 years. How far have they come? So far that even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner recognize the progress. In a WSJ op-ed, they outline the progress, though not mentioning the advancements in free markets and free people that were responsible for the remarkable growth:

When the United States and China established diplomatic relations 30 years ago, it was far from clear what the future would hold. In 1979, China was still emerging from the ruins of the Cultural Revolution and its gross domestic product stood at a mere $176 billion, a fraction of the U.S. total of $2.5 trillion. Even travel and communication between our two great nations presented a challenge: a few unreliable telephone lines and no direct flights connected us. Today China’s GDP tops four trillion dollars, thousands of emails and cellphone calls cross the Pacific Ocean daily, and by next year there will be 249 direct flights per week between the U.S. and China.