There's a common misconception that China's economy development only really took off after Deng reforms. However, the reality is that there's been steady progress since the revolution.
Well..., total GDP (unlike GDP per capita) is not a good measure of the well -being of a nation, a country with a large population can have a very high GDP but a poor standard of living
GDP per capita isn't a measure of standard of living either. For example, a country with a high level of exploitation will have high GDP per capita. There are plenty of better measures for the standard of living such as Physical Quality of Life Index. And there is plenty of evidence that the standard of living in China has been increasingly steadily.
Only in a sense that western nations that have been traditionally exploiting the Global South have enjoyed an overall higher standard of living as a result.
Yes, but only since Deng reforms. Before them China was a stagnant country