Chen Shihe points herself in a picture at an exhibition featuring China's 30 years' reform and opening-up at Wangfujing Street in Beijing, China, on Dec. 16, 2008. [Xinhua]

No doubt, as top leaders gather today at the Great Hall of the People to mark the epoch-making day 30 years after the country decided on reforms and opening up to the world, there will be somber reflection along with a strong sense of achievement.

They will stress the remarkable progress charted over the 30 years; and, as they set the agenda for the coming years, will most likely point out that the need is for more reform, not less.

Yes, there have been birth pangs; and there will be growing pains. As Deng Xiaoping, the architect of the reforms, presciently said in 1993, we will encounter more problems as we develop than we would if we were in a state of under-development.

But the phenomenal success of the reform and opening up is not remotely in doubt - few who have seen the changes, either in China or overseas, have questions about its historic significance.

Mere statistical evidence is jaw-dropping. Simply put, never in history have the lives of so many millions been transformed in such a short period.

More compellingly, it is about people - once helpless individuals starting up their own business, poor villages becoming better-off communities, sleepy towns thriving in modern manufacturing and winning contracts worldwide.

Poverty, a legacy from the wars and social turmoil in most of the 20th century, has been effectively reduced, as national welfare programs, such as health and education, continue to be improved.