Page 16 - 2020 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
P. 16
0 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
1.1 US Presidential Policy and the Nor-
malization of US-China Relations
The biggest story at the turn of the century economic activity in an overpopulated country
must be the transformation of China that couldn’t feed all its people. Two years after
into the world's second-largest economy. Three that, the government permitted the creation of
decades of relative isolation, including 10 chaotic privately-owned factories in some villages near
years during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976, Hong Kong as part of a special economic zone. All
had left the country backward and impoverished. interesting, but at the time it did not appear to be
However, in the 40 years since China, under earth-shattering in the US (CT).
patriarch Deng Xiaoping, first embarked on
reform and opened up to the outside world in The initiative not only transformed China,
1978, it has lifted more than 800 million Chinese turning it from a largely agrarian and poor society
out of poverty. The Chinese people's lives have to the second-largest economy in the world, but
improved not only materially. They have also changed the world itself, shifting its center of
gained more civil rights and freedoms. There is gravity eastwards. Martin Jacques, the British
a certain amount of uncertainty over which way academic and author of When China Rules the
China will go in the decades to come, whether it World, believes 1978 was the turning point for
will continue to liberalize its economy and society a new millennium. “Deng’s reforms not only
or otherwise. But what is clear is that the past 40 transformed the whole of the Chinese economy,
years have been nothing short of a miracle for they transformed China’s vision of the world and
the Chinese people in terms of the economic and the world itself. It is an absolutely revolutionary
social transformation that has brought wealth and shift. It was a momentous event, absolutely
freedoms to them (Noi). incredible. In my view it did mark the beginning
of the 21st century,” he said. Whether reform and
Nevertheless, one of the most consequential opening-up have got the attention in the West
events of the past 40 years escaped much the merit has often been debated. Former UK
attention in the United States when it happened Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an interview in
on December 22, 1978. Only years later would 2018 with China Daily that other late 20th century
it become evident that China’s decision at a events often get more attention. “It is a really
Communist Party meeting to allow farmers to sell significant event. If you were a Western student
excess grain at market prices would reverberate— you would study lots of things about the politics of
would, in fact, change the world. On that day, the late 20th century. You would study the Soviet
other things were happening: President Jimmy Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of
Carter’s administration reported progress on apartheid,” he said. “You wouldn’t probably study
a nuclear arms treaty with the Soviet Union. in the same way the opening-up of China, and yet
Meanwhile in Beijing, party officials committed to it signaled that China was going on a new path of
a new policy of “reform and opening up,” focused engagement with the world with the opening up of
on agriculture. Ernest Hemingway, in The Sun Also its economy. The results have been staggering.” As
Rises, wrote that a change in fortune can happen the anniversary is marked, China, which became a
two ways—“gradually and then suddenly.” So, it member of the World Trade Organization in 2001,
was for the Chinese economic miracle. In 1972, is continuing to open up its economy (Moody).
President Richard Nixon’s visit to China started the
conversation, but the leadership of Mao Zedong Following decades of enmity, on December 15,
wasn’t ready to move forward. Four years later, 1978, the United States and China announced the
Deng Xiaoping endorsed modest reforms to spark establishment of diplomatic relations between the
16
1.1 US Presidential Policy and the Nor-
malization of US-China Relations
The biggest story at the turn of the century economic activity in an overpopulated country
must be the transformation of China that couldn’t feed all its people. Two years after
into the world's second-largest economy. Three that, the government permitted the creation of
decades of relative isolation, including 10 chaotic privately-owned factories in some villages near
years during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976, Hong Kong as part of a special economic zone. All
had left the country backward and impoverished. interesting, but at the time it did not appear to be
However, in the 40 years since China, under earth-shattering in the US (CT).
patriarch Deng Xiaoping, first embarked on
reform and opened up to the outside world in The initiative not only transformed China,
1978, it has lifted more than 800 million Chinese turning it from a largely agrarian and poor society
out of poverty. The Chinese people's lives have to the second-largest economy in the world, but
improved not only materially. They have also changed the world itself, shifting its center of
gained more civil rights and freedoms. There is gravity eastwards. Martin Jacques, the British
a certain amount of uncertainty over which way academic and author of When China Rules the
China will go in the decades to come, whether it World, believes 1978 was the turning point for
will continue to liberalize its economy and society a new millennium. “Deng’s reforms not only
or otherwise. But what is clear is that the past 40 transformed the whole of the Chinese economy,
years have been nothing short of a miracle for they transformed China’s vision of the world and
the Chinese people in terms of the economic and the world itself. It is an absolutely revolutionary
social transformation that has brought wealth and shift. It was a momentous event, absolutely
freedoms to them (Noi). incredible. In my view it did mark the beginning
of the 21st century,” he said. Whether reform and
Nevertheless, one of the most consequential opening-up have got the attention in the West
events of the past 40 years escaped much the merit has often been debated. Former UK
attention in the United States when it happened Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an interview in
on December 22, 1978. Only years later would 2018 with China Daily that other late 20th century
it become evident that China’s decision at a events often get more attention. “It is a really
Communist Party meeting to allow farmers to sell significant event. If you were a Western student
excess grain at market prices would reverberate— you would study lots of things about the politics of
would, in fact, change the world. On that day, the late 20th century. You would study the Soviet
other things were happening: President Jimmy Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of
Carter’s administration reported progress on apartheid,” he said. “You wouldn’t probably study
a nuclear arms treaty with the Soviet Union. in the same way the opening-up of China, and yet
Meanwhile in Beijing, party officials committed to it signaled that China was going on a new path of
a new policy of “reform and opening up,” focused engagement with the world with the opening up of
on agriculture. Ernest Hemingway, in The Sun Also its economy. The results have been staggering.” As
Rises, wrote that a change in fortune can happen the anniversary is marked, China, which became a
two ways—“gradually and then suddenly.” So, it member of the World Trade Organization in 2001,
was for the Chinese economic miracle. In 1972, is continuing to open up its economy (Moody).
President Richard Nixon’s visit to China started the
conversation, but the leadership of Mao Zedong Following decades of enmity, on December 15,
wasn’t ready to move forward. Four years later, 1978, the United States and China announced the
Deng Xiaoping endorsed modest reforms to spark establishment of diplomatic relations between the
16
