Article/Wang Wen, columnist of Sina Financial Opinion Leader (WeChat official account kopleader)
Opening up is not an easy task. In the current complex international context, China's further all-round opening-up policy is touching the global deepwater area. China needs to sum up the experience and lessons of other countries' opening up, not only to avoid the tragedy of domestic financial and economic turbulence caused by Argentina and other countries' rapid opening up at the beginning of the last century, but also to avoid the consequences of great power chauvinism formed in the radical expansion of the Soviet Union.
In recent years, anti globalization thoughts such as protectionism, unilateralism, and even closed doorism have spread all over the world. China has firmly held the banner of opening up and become a global leader in economic globalization, trade liberalization, and market reciprocity. However, there are still some international public opinions doubting China's sincerity and perseverance in opening up, ignoring the basic fact that the opening up policy has been integrated into China's development. Numerous facts have shown that opening up is the historical experience, practical preference and future necessity of China's prosperity and development.
From a historical perspective, opening up has been a major driving force for China's success in turning from decline to prosperity and sustained growth since modern times. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the painful lesson of closing the door to the outside world and being beaten for backwardness has sounded an alarm for the Chinese people. If a country or a nation wants to develop and grow, it can never close the door. Even if the previous national strength is stronger, we should always keep communicating and learning with the world, otherwise, sooner or later, we will become arrogant and complacent, and eventually be surpassed by others, and will inevitably be bullied and oppressed. The fact of 40 years of reform and opening up reminds us once again that only by keeping an open mind, implementing an open policy and learning from the strong can we become stronger. Over the past 40 years, the Chinese people have looked at the world and kept pace with the times. They have attracted cutting-edge science and technology and advanced management experience from the world. They have absorbed the advantages of foreign systems, learned from the advantages and disadvantages of other countries' systems, met the growing needs of people's lives, and made great changes in the country. Over the past 40 years, through domestic reform and opening up, China has stepped out of the "outsider" dilemma of the international community and become an "insider" step by step. Its economic aggregate has increased 224 times, and its total foreign trade has increased 199 times. It has gradually moved from the marginal position of the international system to the central position, and has gradually upgraded from a follower of international rules to a reformer, From a passive recipient of the international situation to an active shaper, and from a replicator of internationally leading technology to a contributor. Benefiting from opening up and tasting the benefits from opening up, there is no reason for the Chinese to go back, and no Chinese will allow their country to return to the closed state.
In reality, opening up is a basic national policy that China has recognized from top to bottom, reached consensus among the whole people, and stipulated by the fundamental law. Over the past 40 years, whether it is the Constitution of the People's Republic of China that has been amended six times, the Constitution of the Communist Party of China that has been amended several times, the documents of the Party Congress that are held every five years, or the annual government work report, it has clearly written the content of "adhering to reform and opening up". For the Chinese, adhering to the basic national policy of opening to the outside world, absorbing and drawing on all the achievements of civilization created by human society, has become an axiom that must be followed in the daily operation of the Party and the country from the initial practice. Against the backdrop of uncertainty and instability in the current world economic growth, adhering to the road of openness and accommodation and maintaining an open international economy and multilateral trading system are not only a rational and optimized choice for China's sustained prosperity and development, but also the responsibility of a major country that has received universal support from the world. In recent years, China has built pilot free trade zones in Shanghai, Hainan and other places, relaxed market access and deepened reform in many sensitive and important areas such as finance, trade, investment, tariffs, intellectual property rights, and held the China International Import Expo, which further demonstrates China's major policy declaration and firm proposition of continuing to promote its opening-up policy to the outside world, It is also a proof of the basic fact that the Chinese people have "written in the document", "thought so in their heart", and "actually did so" in their opening up policy.
From the perspective of future trends, opening up is the only way for China to maintain sustainable growth and stand in the forest of powerful countries for a long time. To adhere to reform and opening up is to adhere to the road of strengthening the country. Opening up to the outside world, keeping the pressure on the deepening of domestic reform, keeping an eye on major international trends, keeping track of the world's advanced knowledge, and keeping learning about the world's leading things, China's development of various undertakings will always be in the forefront in the fierce national competition. Through the continuous two-way opening up in the future, we will share China's experience with the vast number of developing countries, contribute China's programs to the long-standing global governance, provide China's own development opportunities for countries around the world, promote the mutually beneficial and win-win opening strategy, and build a community with a shared future for mankind. These are China's responsibilities as a major country approaching the center of the global stage. In recent years, China has promoted the "Belt and Road" initiative to expand imports and foreign investment, which further demonstrates that the future of China's opening up cannot be an individual leading actor of a single country, but a chorus performance in which all parties sing a song together. Compared with the realism logic of "zero sum game" in western international relations theory, and the historical lessons of colonialism, disasters, wars and conflicts brought by the rise of western countries in the past five hundred years, the Chinese people increasingly understand that only when China's door becomes wider and wider, and the world enters China, can China enter the world. If the world is good, China will be good; If China is good, the world will be better.
Of course, opening up is not an easy task. In the current complex international context, China's further all-round opening-up policy is touching the global deepwater area. China needs to sum up the experience and lessons of other countries' opening up, not only to avoid the tragedy of domestic financial and economic turbulence caused by Argentina and other countries' rapid opening up at the beginning of the last century, but also to avoid the consequences of great power chauvinism formed in the radical expansion of the Soviet Union.
What needs to be reminded is that today, as the world's second largest economy, China's investment, trade, tourism, culture, education and information are going deep into all countries, facing unprecedented risks and challenges. In the past, the openness focused on "inviting in", and the risks and challenges were relatively easy to control and resolve at home; In the future, the opening-up will focus on "going out", and the risks and challenges will become more difficult to ponder and grasp abroad. At this time, the strength, speed and depth of the Chinese people's opening up to the next step need to have a gradual rhythm.
After all, as a large country accounting for nearly 20% of the world's population, the future omni-directional opening policy will bring about tremendous changes in China and the impact of all countries in the world. A more comprehensive and prudent assessment and more adequate prevention plans are quite necessary for the deep integration of China and the world. An all-round opening is like breaking the cocoon into a butterfly again. Although there may be discomfort, a more open China will surely benefit the whole mankind and make the world more impressed.
The editorial edition of this article was published in the People's Daily on November 12, with the original title of "China will not stagnate in its efforts to promote a higher level of opening-up".
(The author of this article introduces: Executive Dean of Chongyang Institute of Finance, Renmin University of China, who has recently written The Illusion of a Great Power: Diary and Thinking of Walking the World.)
