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Full steam ahead with reform

By Zheng Qingyuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-01 16:14

Greater resolve and courage needed to continue the good work of 30 years and build an all-round xiaokang society

If there is one phrase to sum up the most distinctive feature of the new period, it is "reform and opening-up".

Reform is a profound revolution. Earth-shaking changes in China over the past more than 30 years were based precisely on the new mechanisms constantly breaking through the old ones, which were hindering economic and social development. Reform must be advanced with greater resolve and courage in a comprehensive manner in all fields.

The main thread running through the Fifth Plenary Session of the 17th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, which calls for economic and social development during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) period, is the important idea of deepening reform and opening-up.

For more than 30 years, reform and opening-up have been the consistent choice for China's development. In the establishment of a socialist market economic system and a legal system with Chinese characteristics, as well as in making all-round reform and opening-up the pattern of modernization and promoting social construction to guarantee and improve people's livelihood, reform and opening-up have been the main theme of China, and the fundamental force driving all our undertakings forward.

The significance of reform and opening-up lies in the fact that this great revolution is leading a country with a population of nearly one-fourth of the world's total to catch up with the trend of the times, and embark on the road to modernization.

In the past 30-odd years, China has realized the degree of industrialization, urbanization and social transformation that took a century for developed countries to achieve. In the 30-odd years, the Chinese economy has maintained continuous high growth rate of nearly 10 percent a year, ascending into the ranks of middle-income countries. In the 30-odd years, the population of rural poor in China has decreased from more than 250 million to just more than 30 million. It is the strong vitality inspired by reform and opening-up that has made possible the historic changes in Chinese people, socialist China and the CPC.

The significance of reform and opening-up also lies in the fact that this revolution has, through continuous exploration and practice, made it possible for China to blaze a unique and right trail of development. The "Chinese Road" is enriching the world's choices in approaches to modernization.

Deng Xiaoping once said: "Our reform is an experiment not only in China, but also in the international context, which we believe will succeed. If successful, it can provide certain experience for the socialist cause in the world and the development of underdeveloped countries."

In the sweeping waves of transformation, China has found a vibrant path toward modernization, and offers the world a development model for a new pattern of social form and social system. When the Chinese economy became the first in the world to overcome the global financial crisis, and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and Shanghai 2010 World Expo showcased the splendor of socialist China, the Western media were left wonderstruck. The "Chinese Road" has fuelled rich imaginations across the world about its system.

Practice shows that reform and opening-up are the only way to make our country strong and prosperous, and our people happy and content. As the report of the 17th CPC National Congress said: "Reform and opening-up are consistent with the Party's and the people's wishes, and conform to the trend of the times. The orientation and path are entirely correct. The merits and contributions brook no denial. We will get nowhere if we stop or backpedal."

China's development and progress over the past more than 30 years has relied on reform and opening-up. To realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, we will continue to rely on reform and opening-up. Only by unswervingly pushing forward reform and opening-up, and liberating and developing productive forces to their maximum can the socialist modernization drive have an inexhaustible motivating force. Development will be out of the question without reform. So, to continue to develop, we must deepen the reform. This is the consensus in contemporary China for the road of development.

Thanks to this consensus the pace of reform has never stopped in China. Reform in economic systems has pressed ahead vigorously, and new driving forces for economic development continue to emerge. Reform in political arrangements has been pushed forward actively, steadily and prudently, democracy and rule of law have made important headways, and people's rights to be masters of the State have been better guaranteed. Reform in cultural systems is accelerating, cultural undertakings are overflowing with vigor, and the cultural industry enjoys unprecedented prosperity.

Reform in social mechanisms has been gaining new steam continuously, and reform in fields such as education, healthcare, social security is advancing in a comprehensive manner. The new systems that are continuously being established, the new initiatives that are constantly being introduced and the new explorations that are persistently emerging have enlivened and inspired the entire Chinese society, and driven the country forward.

As China's per capita GDP approaches $4,000, a range of issues in the reform process are emerging. In a little more than 30 years, we have covered a distance that took other countries almost a century. The profound transformation in social structure, profound adjustments in the pattern of interests and profound changes in ideas have created a large number of new contradictions and new problems.

The great development, great transformation and great adjustment in the world's context have resulted in new changes in international economic and political patterns, and competition in comprehensive national strength has become more intense. Profound changes in international and domestic conditions have thrown our reform and opening-up into a complex situation "rarely seen in the world".

In such circumstances, we should cherish the explorations and achievements of reform and opening-up, and more unswervingly persevere in reform and opening-up.

How can we make our modernization drive comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable by shifting the approach to development? How to handle the relationships between reform, development and stability well, and maintain continuity in the process of modernization? How to better meet people's rising demands for fairness and justice while improving efficiency? How to build and consolidate the core socialist values in step with the economic takeoff, and elevate the entire nation's ideological and moral qualities?

The answers to these questions will determine China's future. Only by accelerating the pace of reform in difficult areas, vigorously pushing forward reform in economic systems, actively, steadily and prudently pressing ahead with reform in the political setup, speeding up reform in the cultural and social mechanisms, and constantly improving the socialist market economic system with more wisdom, greater courage and stronger determination can we make the ship of socialist modernization cleave the waves and forge ahead.

Today, China stands at a new starting point again. This is the point where the 12th Five-Year Plan succeeds the previous one, a critical point in the period of significant strategic opportunities and a connecting point in our country's modernization process. For some time to come, we need to take Scientific Outlook on Development as the main theme, accelerate the transformation of the mode of economic development and continuously deepen reform and gain impetus through institutional innovation to strengthen macro control and adjust the economic structure, as well as to straighten out the relationships in income distribution and improve the social security system. This will lay a solid foundation of decisive significance for building an all-round xiaokang (moderately well-off) society.

Reform is an enormous project of systems engineering. The overall layout of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics as a quaternity has taken shape. Reform has proceeded from individual breakthroughs to a new stage of overall advancement. We must set our eyes on the overall situation and adopt a strategic perspective, pay more attention to the top-level designing and overall planning for reform, make clear the priority sequence and key tasks of reform, and adhere to the principle that development is for the people and by the people and that the fruits of development should be shared by the people. Also, we must ensure that decisions and measures of reform are more scientific and better coordinated, and allow the people to share the achievements of reform and development.

More than 30 years ago, our Party made the historic decision to launch reform and opening-up on the basis of its keen understanding of the developments and changes in international and domestic situations. That is the most important experience of seizing opportunities for development. That great revolution has dramatically changed China's destiny.

China is still in a promising period of significant strategic opportunities. As long as we cherish, seize and make good use of the opportunities, and press ahead with reform in all fields in a comprehensive manner with greater determination and courage, we will be able to continuously create new prospects for our socialist modernization drive, and usher in the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

The article first appeared in People's Daily on Oct 29.

China Forum

(China Daily 10/30/2010 page5)