China does not have great geographic resources, but when they reformed their economy in the 80s and 90s to intentionally become more capitalistic, their economy and general standard of quality of life immediately and dramatically improved.

It may seem ironic, but China may be the best argument for capitalism the world has ever seen. They initially allowed certain provinces to experiment with capitalism and showed immediate and distinct improvements compared to the rest of the country. Then they made changes nationwide and the whole country improved. The difference wasn't that their natural resources changed, but that they pointedly changed their system. Everyone in China is much better off for the change. If they would wholly embrace capitalism and shrug off the authoritarian government, it would be even better, imo. Ukraine has amazing natural resources, but until they loosened up their economy it did them little good (obviously the war has derailed that).