Q: After the new China was founded in 1949, the country
started its march on socialist road. Why did China put forward the
policy of reform and opening to the outside world in 1978? At
present, many countries are trying to carry out reforms, but their
results differ. Compared to reforms in other countries, how did the
Chinese reform achieve successes?
A: After the "new China" was founded, the country China adopted
a centralized planned economy after the economic mode of the former
Soviet Union. That kind of economy played an important role given
the historical conditions of that time.
However, with the expansion of economic scope and increasing
complexity in economic relations, defects of rigidity and
over-centralization of the planned economy gradually stood out.
These defects, coupled with egalitarian distribution, failed to
bring productivity into full play, which in turn resulted in a
shortage of production materials and poverty of the people. They
also blocked the development of social productive forces. The
situation forced China to implement the reform and the open
policy.
?
Since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of
the Communist Party of China in 1978, we have gradually realized
that China is still in the elementary phase of socialism. During
this phase, the basic task is to develop productivity and to
strengthen comprehensive national strength and to improve people’s
life. The aim of the reform and the open policy is to overhaul the
economic system that had held back the development of productivity,
to build a socialist market economic system full of energy and
vigor, and to reform the political system and other systems, so
that advantages of socialism will be fully demonstrated.
?
China has taken its national conditions into full consideration
when implementing the reforms. Since 1978, China has adopted a
gradual approach in the reforms, which started from rural areas and
later spread to urban areas, from coastal areas to inland areas,
from economy to politics, culture, science and technology,
education and other fields.
More than 20 years of practice has demonstrated that the reforms
and the open policy not only have injected new vigor into China's
socialist system, but also have made the country more powerful and
its people richer.
China is one of the fastest growing
economies in the world. Reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs)
has played a key role in the growth.
