I was talking to a Chinese friend about the history of the Chinese Communist Party and their efforts to develop China. I argued that perhaps a non-Communist government might have done a better job, especially during the period surrounding the Great Leap Forward. She replied "where would we have been without world communism?"

Apparently she is under the impression that world communism, primarily the Soviet Union, provided significant assistance to China to help it develop. Is this true? I'd never heard of this before, but it seems it's taught in Chinese schools.

I'm mostly thinking about the 1960s or thereabouts, but I'd be interested in any such support happening from the 1950s through the 1980s.