The making of Chinese miracles: An ongoing quest to open up further
China has created many miracles that have found their place in human history. A key driving force behind China's dazzling achievements is its decades-long quest to "reform and opening-up", resulting in its development into the world's second-largest economy.
A turning point in the country's history came in 1978, following a period of political upheaval, high poverty rates and sluggish economic performance.
In Chinese, "crisis and opportunity" are often perceived as two sides of the same coin. In December 1978, then-State leader Deng Xiaoping - a visionary, daring trailblazer who was widely accepted as the "chief architect" of China's reform and opening-up policy - set the country on course for world-shaking economic development by calling for reform by all means at the third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
That game-changing move opened China's doors to the world, ushering in foreign investment and stimulating the domestic private sectors. Building on the successful strategy of "using the countryside to encircle cities" during the wars that led to the founding of China, the productivity-oriented economic reforms were kick-started with a pilot run in a small village in Anhui province and quickly swept the whole country. Breaking away from the collective economy, farmers were motivated to work harder as they had been enabled to contract land and freely dispose of surplus production.
This daring policy also thrust China into the world's gaze when Deng and his wife were invited to pay a visit to the United States in January 1979 - China's first State visit to the US since it was founded in 1949.
A year later, Guangdong's Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Fujian's Xiamen were made into special economic zones. From fishing village to newfound global tech bellwether, Shenzhen is now widely regarded as the poster city of the national policy, representing another miracle that marks the policy's coming to fruition.
Even in the early stages of China's four-and-a-half-decades-long path to reform and opening-up, Deng emphasized the importance of science and technology, and identified them as primary productive forces in his meeting with former Czech president Gustav Husak on Sept 5, 1988.
The reform has taken place in firm and steady steps, sweeping through areas spanning State-owned enterprises, banks, education, legal frameworks and economic structure.
In 1992, Deng made an important speech that set a decisive tone for the reform and opening-up, sparking a daring and iconoclastic spirit of change. In the same year, the country's ruling party agreed that China should embark on a course to become the world's first socialist market economy - a term coined to describe a hybrid economic system that aspires to strike a balance between the free market and socialism.
In 1994, the country reformed its State-owned enterprises and marketized its housing industry.
With its growing economic prowess, China resumed the excercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and Macao in, respectively, 1997 and 1999 - the same year it launched its first experimental spacecraft, Shenzhou 1.
In 2001, China's efforts to reform itself and open its doors to the world paid off when it became a member of the World Trade Organization after 15 years of arduous negotiations. China, poised for staggering economic growth, benefited greatly from globalization and in return become a major player in, key contributor to, and participant in the global economy, generating more than 30 percent of global growth for years. China is now the largest trading partner of more than 120 countries and regions.
A rising power, China began to cut a fine figure on the global stage by extending its global influence on various fronts. In 2008, it held the Beijing Olympic Games, flexing its 5,000-year-old cultural muscles to the 204 countries and regions worldwide that tuned in for the broadcasts. China also topped the medal table, winning 51 gold, 21 silver and 28 bronze medals.
Some jaw-dropping figures recorded by China in the last 45 years provide a glimpse of the policy's success. China's GDP has grown from 367.9 billion yuan ($50.8 billion) in 1978 to 121 trillion yuan in 2022, with its per capita disposable income having surged from 171 yuan in 1978 to 36,883 yuan in 2022.
On the road to becoming the world's second-largest economy, China remained committed to its people-oriented governing philosophy and had lifted about 98.99 million rural residents out of absolute poverty by 2021, a sheer Chinese miracle in human history.
Chinese people are not only better off financially, but also medically, with their life expectancy having been extended by 12 years, from 66 in 1978 to 78 in 2023.
The ruling party's commitment to the reform and opening-up policy is also a stabilizing factor within the country. This has repeatedly been made clear in open speeches by State leaders. In 2018, President Xi Jinping, at a celebration marking the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening-up, was full of applause for the policy, pledging to stay committed to the fundamental national policy of opening-up as "China cannot develop itself in isolation from the world, and the world needs China for global prosperity".
The pursuit of reform and opening-up, and socialism with Chinese characteristics, was also hailed by Xi as one of three great milestones, together with the birth of the CPC and the founding of the country, on the country's path to national rejuvenation in modern times.
Hong Kong and Macao have both played an important role in the nation's reform and opening-up. In 1980, Hong Kong entrepreneur Dr Annie Wu Suk-ching followed in the footsteps of her late father, Dr James Tak Wu, and established the 001 Sino-Foreign Joint Venture Beijing Air Catering Co, with the CAAC Beijing Administration Bureau - the nation's first joint venture, endorsed by Deng himself - which specialized in the provision of airline meals.
Beyond setting up factories and companies and making regular donations to build schools and enhance the nation's infrastructure, Hong Kong has also leveraged its international connectivity in order to fund the mainland's fast-paced and ever-changing development. The city has since become the country's largest source of foreign direct investment, accounting for over half of the country's FDI.
China's commitment to its opening-up policy is also in line with its peaceful development, and its commitment to working with other countries to build a community with a shared future for humankind in a win-win approach.
The Belt and Road Initiative - another visionary approach introduced by Xi in 2013 to foster closer transnational trade and people-to-people ties - also exemplifies China's commitment to keeping its doors wide open to the outside world and its strong desire to achieve higher quality opening-up.
Chinese people value both "the unity of words and deeds" of a person, meaning they don't judge a person only by his words, but also by his actions. In the same vein, the past 45 years are proof of China's resolve and commitment to its ongoing quest of reform and opening-up.
