By Kai Wang ( October 5, 2017, 2:00 PM EDT) -- 1949 marked the birth of the People's Republic of China. What ensued was a three decade long self-imposed isolation which impoverished the nation economically and on many other fronts. The decade from 1966 to 1976, also known as the "Cultural Revolution," saw a total destruction of traditional values and established order. Barely two years later, in 1978, socialist China opened its doors economically for the first time to the outside world. That unleashing of the entrepreneurial spirit of the world's largest workforce has created an economic miracle. Thirty years later in 2007, China unseated Germany to become the third largest economy in the world. A mere three years later in 2010, China overtook Japan, who had been the world's second largest economy for the past four decades, to become second only to the U.S....