China is the most populous nation on earth, with an estimated population of 1.3 billion, or 19.35 % of the world’s population. The country started on a trajectory of astonishing economic growth in 1978, when the Communist ideal of a planned economy promoted by Mao Zedong was abandoned in favour of a more mixed economic system, known as “market socialism”. The Party loosened control of citizens’ lives, disbanded the agricultural commune system and introduced market-like principles to the economy.