CHINA'S 40 YEARS OF OPENING-UP: FEATURES AND INSPIRATIONS

CHAI SHANGJIN

Research Fellow, Research Office, International Department,CPC Central Committee

In forty years of reform and openingup, China has turned from a relatively closed and backward country to a major developing one that is more and more open and integrating into the world. The Chinese nation has witnessed a great leap forward from standup and get-rich to go-strong. Its opening to the outside world has continued to be synchronized and in mutual promotion with reform. It is an uneven process in four phases, whose achievements and experiences providing further opening in the new situation with profound inspirations.

INTERIM FEATURES OF 40 YEARS OF OPENING-UP

The course of China's opening to the outside world falls into roughly four phases, each having distinct interim features.

The first phase is between the end of the 1970s and that of the 1980s, featuring that China opens its door, pursuing an “inviting policy” to introduce investment, technology and advanced managerial know-how from developed Western countries.

Prior to the 3rd Plenum of the 11th CPC Central Committee, China's opening to the outside had been basically stagnated as constrained by ideology.As the Party and the country shifted the focus of national energy in favor of economic development, a new page was turned for opening-up.

In October 1978, Deng Xiaoping paid an official visit to Japan, the first ever made by the Chinese leadership since the founding of the PRC. In November of the same year, Deng also visited Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. At the beginning of 1979, as China entered into diplomatic relations with the United States, Deng made an official visit to the country during which the two countries reached a number of agreements on technological and cultural cooperation, by which China took a key step in opening-up.

Afterwards, China took a series of preferential policy measures to attract foreign investment, introduce advanced foreign technology and conduct economic and trade cooperation with other countries. As a result, investment projects came one after another from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and from Japan, Germany and the United States.As such, the door of China opened to the outside world in an all-round way.

The second phase falls between 1989 and 2001, featuring that China keeps its composure in face of a sea change in the international situation and perseveres with opening to the outside world.

Faced with new changes in domestic and international political situation in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Deng Xiaoping displayed great foresight and prudence in calling for “observing calmly; securing our position; coping with affairs calmly and hiding our light”on the international front and unswervingly upholding “one center and two basic points” at home. In particular, the 14th CPC National Congress formally decided for building and improving a socialist market economic system, creating a new realm in reform and opening-up.

The third phase is from 2001 to 2010,featuring that China accelerates its opening process and makes historical turning from “inviting in” to “going global” and from “running after” to“running shoulder to shoulder” with the West.

In 2001, China acceded into the WTO and quickened its pace in opening process, rapidly becoming a major trading nation in the world. Seizing the opportunity of accession to the WTO, China moved on with combining “inviting in”and “going global” and “encouraging and supporting companies with competitive advantage of various ownership,be it state, public or private, to invest abroad so as to drive goods and labor exports and establish a group of strong multinational corporations as well as famous brands”. By implementing a “going global” strategy, China heightened its level of opening-up comprehensively.

The fourth phase is from 2010 on,featuring that China deeply integrates into the world economy and deepens its competitive and cooperative relationship with developed countries. After becoming the world's second largest economy, not only isit necessary for China to overcome pressures from developed countries in the West and avert a headon collision with the United States, it is also necessary for the country to lay out a grand opening pattern with broadmindedness and wisdom.

In fall 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping made the initiative of joint construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road respectively in Kazakhstan and Indonesia, symbolizing that China's opening-up reached a higher stage.

Insisting on “America First”, US President Donald Trump has taken his country out of international groupings,nullified international agreements and come up with economic and trade frictions with China, the latter being an explosion of growing suspicion and jealousy of the achievements of China's economic growth and its Belt and Road Initiative. Such a contest has given a whole set of new variables to China's opening-up as well as economic globalization of the world. China's important period of strategic opportunity will face a new serious threat.

CHINA TAKES ON ITS DUE RESPONSIBILITIES AS A MAJOR COUNTRY IN OPENING-UP

Persevering with development in opening-up, China has made a great historical turning from close-up or semi-close-up to opening in all directions. Not only has it changed the country, it also affects the rest of the world in a profound manner. The concept of community with a common future for mankind has become a high flying flag for China in the international arena and an important guiding thought for the country's continued expansion of opening-up.

In diversified, multi-tiered and comprehensive opening to the outside world, China's comprehensive national strength and its international prestige have been remarkably enhanced, which gives rise to self-confidence and national pride of the Chinese people.

In 1978, China's population was about a quarter of the world total, its economy being a mere 2% of the world total and its poverty stricken population, over 70% of the global total of the same period. China was then one of the least developed countries in the world.Through reform, opening up and economic development, China has come out of the development process that took hundreds of years for developed countries to do so. Its economy has risen from being the tenth largest to the second largest in the world. Over 700 million people have ridden poverty. Over the years, China has contributed more than 30% to annual economic growth of the world. Creating an economic miracle that attracts the world's attention,China is praised for “making an unprecedented achievement in human history”by the international community.

In 1978, China's export and import trade totaled US$9.75 billion. By 2017,the figure exceeded US$4 trillion, occupying the first place in the world. For the past four years running, China has continued to occupy the second place in the world for the size of its trade in goods and services, whose annual value on the average is about 10% of that of the world total. It has introduced a direct foreign investment of over US$130 billion, taking up the third place in the world. Its investment overseas exceeds US$180 billion, being the second largest in the world.

When reform and opening-up began,the number of students China sent overseas was only in hundreds and by 2017, it stood at 600,840, the number of students of all kinds accumulated over the past forty years being 5.1949 million. At the same time, a large number of students from foreign countries are studying in China, the figure for 2017 being 489,200. China has become the largest Asian destination for foreign students. Forty years ago, few Chinese travelers went abroad on self-funding trips whereas in 2017, 142.3 million selffunding Chinese tourists went overseas.

Continuing to expand opening-up,China wishes to realize win-win, shared development with all countries worldwide. The “absence of development”is a major defect with the old global governance system, which is underlined by the fact that for long hardly any effective response has been made to meet the development demand by developing countries peopled by over 80% of the world's population. As the Chinese people know very well that China's development benefits from assistance from the international community, they wish to contribute to international development with their own development.As economic growth of today's world is generally weak and development gap gaping, China relies on its own development while promoting cooperation with various countries in the world for shared development in a win-win situation.

The Belt and Road Initiative is a forceful response to the development demand of today's developing countries.It is its salient mark to achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration. As Xi Jinping put it, “China's opening drive is not a one-man show.Rather, it is an invitation open to all.It is a pursuit not to establish China's own sphere of influence, but to support common development of all countries.It is meant to build not China's own backyard garden, but a garden shared by all countries”. Not only does the construction of the Belt and Road unleash development potentials for China deepening reform and opening-up, it also combines China's adherence to the path of peaceful development with calling for and promoting all other countries to take a common path of peaceful development, aiming to achieve a win-win development shared between China and various countries.

The ever deepening of China's foreign relations gives proof to the great aspiration of Chinese Communists to make perfect the whole world (in times of success, as Mencius had it). As Confucian wisdom goes, when the great way prevails, the world is equally shared by all. The CPC is not only a political party that seeks happiness for the Chinese people but also one that works for progress of mankind. Leading the Chinese people in creating a new era of reform and opening-up, the CPC, true to its original aspiration and mindful of its mission, has held high the standard of ideal of mankind and always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, a defender of international order, promoting the construction of a community with shared future for mankind and endeavoring to make new, still greater contributions to the cause of human progress.

INSPIRATIONS FROM CHINA'S FORTY YEARS OF OPENING-UP

Opening-up has been a necessary way for China to develop, make progress and achieve prosperity and national rejuvenation. As Xi Jinping points out,the only path that will take us far and bring us success is the one that is chosen by the Chinese people and suited to China's reality. It is an important conclusion made in summing long historical experience. None of the breakthroughs and development in the past forty years of China's opening-up, either in understanding or in practice in, is not an outcome of the wisdom and practice of the Chinese people. The key to the correct road of China's opening-up and the CPC's ability of leading China to development and progress rests with the fact that the Party has always respected the choice of the people and taken it for its point of departure to preserve and defend the fundamental interest of the Chinese people.

The mainline that runs through the process of China's opening-up is to take the road of reform and opening-up,develop and strengthen socialism with Chinese characteristics and preserve and defend the fundamental interest of the Chinese nation. No matter how arduous and tortuous the process of opening turns out to be, the Chinese people will remain confident in the road of their own choice and firm on going on until they eventually realize socialist modernization and the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

Opening-up has been the necessary command by the law of constructing socialism and that of human social development. The historical law of human social development illustrates that opening-up brings about progress while seclusion can only produce backwardness. Opening-up can lead to an all-win situation while seclusion, an all-lose one. Only through opening-up can various countries mutually benefit one another in common prosperity and lasting development.

The future and destiny of the Chinese nation hinges on reform and openingup, and so much so does that of Marxism and socialism. The significant effects of reform and opening-up do not stop at China but go on to Marxism, socialism and human social development.Since adopting reform and openingup policy, the CPC has persevered with synthesizing basic tenets of Marxism with concrete practice of China and, for the first time, made systemic answers to fundamental theoretical and practical questions on how to build socialism in a relative backward country in economic and cultural terms like China and how to achieve the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, questions centering on what is socialism, how to build it and what kind of development is to be pursued, how to go about it. In the great practice of reform and openingup, the CPC has continued to deepen its understanding of socialism and create a theoretic system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, opening a new realm of Marxism. As China's reform and opening-up soldiers on in the new era, socialism with Chinese characteristics will surely develop further and scientific socialism in China, display still greater liveliness and vitality.

It is a practical innovation of socialism with Chinese characteristics to press ahead reform and development by opening-up. It is a successful story of reform and opening-up, the second revolution of China, to keep on taking economic developmentas a central task and promoting economic development by reform and opening-up. Reform and opening-up are, as always have been, twin brothers in organic unity. As Deng Xiaoping pointed out, in order to develop our country, it is necessary to persevere with opening to the outside world and carrying out reform at home.And as Xi Jinping emphasized, to press ahead with reform and development by opening up is the successful practice of China's reform and development. As reform and opening-up supplement,complement and mutually promote one another, it is necessary for reform to demand opening-up and vice versa.In absence of reform, opening-up would be water without source, producing less than effective results. In absence of opening-up, reform would be a rudderless boat that cannot go far. China's economic growth over the past 40 years has been achieved with a commitment to opening-up. In the same vein,high-quality development of China's economy in the future can only be guaranteed with greater openness. Now,in face of very arduous tasks of deepening reform comprehensively, China still has, as in the past, to rely on the dynamics of opening-up for powerful driving force.

China's reform and opening-up has taken a road to modernization that is different from the Western model. Since adopting reform and opening-up policy,the Chinese Communists have persisted in proceeding from China's national conditions, correctly handled major relationships between economic growth and improvement of people's livelihood, between government and market,and between reform, opening-up and social stability. On top of that, they have continued to draw on fine results of human civilization through opening-up.As a result, they have opened a road of socialist modernization that attracts the world's attention.

By expanding opening-up through deepening reform, not only does China inject new dynamics to global economic development as well as its own development, it has also blazed a trail for other developing countries to achieve modernization, offering a new option for other countries and nations who want to speed up their development while preserving their independence.

As the world today has become a global village where countries all have a stake in each other's future, their economic and social development is increasingly interconnected and mutually affecting one another with a high degree of integration of interest and interdependence. As such, no country can develop behind a closed door. Unilateralism and trade friction in all forms will not only produce negative effects on global economy but also damage common interest of the international community.

Opening-up has become a distinctive identity of contemporary China. No matter how international winds change,the country will continue to expand space for interest integration with other developing countries at the new starting point of the Belt and Road. It will move along with them on the road to modernization.