CHINA

China marks 40th anniversary of open door policy

December 18, 2018

Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping opened a door to the world at the Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1978, and 40 years on, President Xi Jinping plans to open it wider.

In an address to the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing on Dec 29, 2017, the Chinese president announced plans to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the reforms and pledged to widen them. He pledged national rejuvenation and reforms. “In 2018,” Xi said, “efforts should be made to comprehensively implement the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress, adhere to seeking progress while maintaining stability as the underlying principle, and boost the healthy and continual development of the country’s economy and society.”

The outcomes of some of the plenums have fundamentally changed the course of history in China, with the 1978 meeting regarded as the most significant. At that meeting, Deng announced an “open door” economic policy and reform. Before then, China’s main trading partners had been the Soviet Union and its satellites.

Deng realised that China needed Western technology and investment, according to a BBC account of the transformation, and opened the door to foreign businesses that wanted to set up in China. Coupled with domestic agricultural reforms, China’s economy took off.

The BBC notes that since the early 1980s, China has recorded one of the fastest periods of economic growth in world history, although the figures are often disputed. With its market-oriented economic system flourishing, the country joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Its market continues to flourish.

#22461 Published: January 5, 2018