Special report: 30 Years of Reform & Opening
Up
BEIJING, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Reform and opening-up is
a natural choice for China to handle challenges triggered by the world financial
crisis, and sustain its economic miracle, a Chinese scholar said on Wednesday.
Chi Fulin, the executive director of the China
(Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute, along with other members of
Chinese society, and newspapers have voiced their support for extending reform
and opening up, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the country's reform and
opening-up.
The "People's Daily", a mouthpiece newspaper of the
Communist Party of China (CPC), carried a bylined article on its front page on
Wednesday "A historic chance awaits us". It stressed "the time demands that we
propel reform and opening-up".
"It is impossible to reach our aim in one move," said
the article, "we need to consider how to push forward the great endeavour of
reform and opening-up."
"Unswervingly adhere to the socialist market
economy," was clearly stated at the central economic working conference which
ended last week.
Thursday is the 30th anniversary of China's reform
and opening-up. The third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the
CPC was opened on Dec. 18, 1978, which signaled the country's mission shift from
the social class struggle to economic construction, as well as a starting point
for the reform and opening-up.
Having gone through a series of significant events
including snow disasters, the Sichuan earthquake, and the Beijing Olympics in
2008, China will now celebrate the 30th anniversary of reform and opening-up.
Reform has remained a key topic for all domestic
media, and galas to celebrate reform and opening-up were held around the country
in the past weeks.
The climax will be on Thursday morning, when a
celebration meeting will be held in Beijing, to review and commentate the
achievements and significance of the epoch changing policy initiated 30 years
before.
However, there is a long way to go after the
celebration.
The country's reform is faced with many tasks, said
Chi Fulin, adding that all the tasks are very "hard ones".
According to Chi, the unexpected world financial
crisis has put big pressure on the country's reform and development.
Chi also regarded these challenges as a "reversed
transmission of the pressure", which was similar to that of 30 years ago. The
Cultural Revolution led China to political and economic turmoil, which propelled
the CPC to choose reform and opening-up as a way out.
Chi's opinion was echoed by Wang Yang, the Party
chief of southern Guangdong Province, who stressed that the crisis has also
provided chances for Guangdong to search for a new economic growth model
separate from traditional processing industry.
Affected by the world economic recession, China was
faced with economic pain. In November, the country's exports witnessed negative
growth for the first time in seven years.
Deepening reform and opening-up has become one key
point for China to maintain economic growth, and also one of the five key points
for next year's economic work.
The "People's Daily" published six commentaries from
Dec.1, stressing "Standing at a new historic starting point, we should continue
to propel reform and opening-up, and persist with the socialist market economy".
The "Financial Times" Chinese language website listed
Deng Xiaoping, the initiator of reform, as the top Chinese personality of the
past 30 years.
"He helped Chinese people become rich, his policies
almost reached every Chinese person in the late 20th century, and also changed
the world to a certain extent," the website gave out as its reason.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in Beijing
on Tuesday that in the past three decades, China has benefited from the
international system, and vice versa.
Chi Fulin expects an important speech from China's
top leader on Thursday. "I hope the speech would help propel the reform in the
next 30 years, especially against the background of the financial crisis," said
Chi.
