As we move on in time, the more it will become evident that the main political implications of the 20th C are that Communism was tried, tested and discarded. The very root of its demise as a viable social model was the inability to generate enough income to pay the bills to an even higher extent than the capitalist system in the west. Stagnant centrally-planned economies, no freedom of enterprise, bloated civil services at an unnafordable cost, crossing over from Berlin's western sector into the other side was like going through a time-hole setting you back a few decades.
The Chinese, in their traditional wisdom, wised up to that in the late 70s. With Mao gone, the regime decided to try out some 'capitalism' in a controlled experiment just like we do with GM crops and we can see they thought it worked alright. All communist experiments have failed to pay their way and have ended up incorporating an element of capitalism.