Opening-Up Is the Basic National Policy of China

This basic national policy officially was determined by the Third Plenary Session of the 12th Central Committee of the Party in October 1984. This major decision is an inevitable choice for socialist China to absorb all the achievements of human civilization and gain a comparative advantage over capitalist countries. The opening to the outside world at this time mainly included import and export, foreign investment and investment abroad, technology introduction and technology export, foreign contracted projects and labor cooperation, international tourism, foreign aid, and various other forms of economic exchanges.

Deng Xiaoping pointed out in his speech “More-emancipated Thoughts and Faster Reforms” that opening to the outside world is a basic national policy of our country. He also linked China’s development with the world’s development and emphasized that it was impossible for any country to develop in isolation. China's development cannot be separated from the world. It must open to the outside world while reforming internally. Opening up is also reform and reform needs to continue to open up.

Deng Xiaoping emphasized, “To develop productive forces, we must implement Reform and Opening-up policies. Not reforming won’t work and not opening up won’t work either.” Deng Xiaoping also attached great importance to the strategic position and role of foreign trade in socialist modernization and he put forward the strategic concept of developing foreign trade, emphasized the need to expand imports and exports, introduced new technologies and equipment and accelerate modernization. Utilizing foreign capital is one of the core contents of Deng Xiaoping’s opening-up thought. Deng Xiaoping pointed out, “Utilizing foreign capital is a very important policy, to which I think we should stick.” Opening to the outside world has been the general policy of strengthening foreign exchanges and promoting economic development since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party. It reflects the objective requirements of the development of socialized production. Before the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party was held in December 1978, Deng Xiaoping proposed to “implement an opening up policy”.

Since then, our country has established Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, Zhuhai Special Economic Zone, Shantou Special Economic Zone and Xiamen Special Economic Zone, and has successively opened up a series of coastal port cities, Hainan Special Economic Zone, coastal opening-up zones, and foreign development zones. From east to west and from south to north, an all-round, multi-level and wide-range opening pattern is formed, which developed from dots to lines and to areas. China has gone from large-scale “bring in outside resources” to “go global” in great strides, forming an open economy and becoming the world's largest exporter, second largest importer, second largest foreign investment country and third largest outbound investment country and The largest foreign exchange reserve country. Opening to the outside world has become a continuous driving force for development. Practice has proved that China, as a socialist country, through opening up to the outside world, can make full use of both domestic and foreign markets and resources and can actively learn from and absorb all the scientific achievements and management experience created by capitalism that belong to the development of human civilization, accelerating development and gaining an advantage over capitalism. Judging from the current era and world development trends, the acceleration of economic globalization has brought closer economic ties between countries and has increased common problems, common interests, and interdependence. This requires more the strategy of open development to jointly respond to the challenges and win mutually in cooperation.

China’s opening up to the outside world is not a stopgap measure, but a basic national policy that must be adhered to for a long time. Our country's opening up to the outside world and self-reliance are complementary. Independence and self-reliance are the basis for opening up to the outside world, while opening up to the outside world is to enhance the ability to be independent and self-reliant. Increased economic strength and comprehensive national strength can further expand the depth and breadth of opening up. Both independence and self-reliance are for better and faster socialist modernization. It is necessary to introduce advanced technology, but we must combine the introduction with development and innovation to form our own advantages. We must use foreign capital, but at the same time pay more attention to our own accumulation. Only in this way can we buy time and accelerate the narrowing of the gap with developed countries. Independence and self-reliance are not about closing the country to international intercourse. Self-reliance is not blindly exclusive, but about adhering to the principle of equality and mutual benefit in opening up, actively participating in international economic cooperation and competition and raising the opening up to a new higher level. The practice of our country’s Reform and Opening-up shows that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has determined that opening up to the outside world is a long-term basic national policy of our country, which is of great strategic significance. Opening up to the outside world has enabled China to integrate more and more into the world. While promoting its own rapid development, it has also made important contributions to the prosperity and development of the world.