Zheng Bijian Attended Understanding China Guangzhou Conference and Delivered A Keynote Speech

A New Journey of Reform and Opening Up

--- An Overarching Theme

Zheng Bijian

 Oct 26, 2019

We are all impressed by how much importance the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government have attached to this conference.  Yesterday President Xi Jinping met with some of the international participants in Beijing. Mr. Huang Kunming, member of the political bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, made a special trip to Guangzhou to read the congratulatory message of President Xi to us, and delivered an important speech. All that demonstrates the support and guidance of President Xi Jinping and the CPC Central Committee to our Conference. Around this time last year, here in Guangdong Province, President Xi called on the nation to start "a new journey of reform and opening up". Today, guided by the President’s instructions and congratulatory message and committed to China’s path, we are holding the International Conference in Guangzhou to help the participants to better understand China in the new era by linking the overarching theme of “a new journey of reform and opening up” with the practice of Guangdong Province and with the general trends of a new round of economic globalization.

I.  The two dimensions of “the new journey of reform and opening up” and the new strategic opportunity period

 

"A new journey of reform and opening up ", as a major theme in the overall strategy to build socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, is a terse and vivid expression of the strategic decisions made by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core in anticipation of great changes in China and the world in the 2020s.

 

There are two dimensions in this proposition.  One is that we must start the new journey by building on the great success of reform and opening up in the past 40 years. The other is that this new journey must be geared towards the future, towards the new prospects at home and abroad, and towards the trends of the times in the 2020s and the period of strategic opportunities.

 

Now, the first question we may ask is what is this unprecedented strategic opportunity period like? What is so significant about it?

 

The answer is: First, this is a period of strategic opportunities that comes when the world is moving towards a new round of economic globalization (the fourth round); Second, this period comes at a time when the world is trending towards multi-polarization; Third, this period comes at a time when a large number of developing countries including China are rising peacefully and when developed countries including the United States are seeking renewed development. Fourth, this period comes at a time when China is gearing up its effort to build socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era according to its overall plan.  Fifth, it also comes at a time when unilateralism and hegemonism exercised by certain big power are inevitably going weak and even into decline.

 

II.  A key move to make China a powerful and amicable country

 

 “The new journey of reform and opening up" is by no means an empty slogan. As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, we are committed to completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020 and then taking another thirty years to turn China into a prosperous, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful modern socialist power. Reform and opening up are a critical means to achieve our goal.

Let me explain with two numbers.  One is that today over 50% of Chinese people still live in rural areas and small towns, lagging far behind in terms of per capita GDP, scientific and technological progress and education, and environmental development.  The other is that even by 2050, when China's GDP may surpass that of the United States, its per capita GDP will only be 60-70% of that of the United States.

 

This analysis of dichotomy looks at the situation of China from two different perspectives. By understanding both the strengths and weaknesses of China, we remind ourselves that we mustn’t be complacent but instead should work hard to achieve the big leap from being a prosperous country to being a strong country by embarking on the new journey of reform and opening up and continue to move forward after that.

 

What are the pressing issues in the current phase of "reform and opening up "?  Generally speaking, there are three imperatives: first, to successfully shift our economy from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high quality development; Second, to achieve continued economic progress in major regions, especially the Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta and Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei region, while further addressing the problem of unbalanced economic development between the eastern, central and western regions; third, to step up scientific and technological innovation, especially indigenous innovation, so as to move the manufacturing industry up the value chain from the middle and low end to the middle and high end.

 

Therefore, the critical and only way to make China a powerful country is through further reform and opening up.

 

III.   Comprehensive enhancement in the four areas of productivity, innovation, market strength and social governance

 

Generally speaking, the new journey of reform and opening up is fundamentally about achieving greater development in the new era by working towards the goal of perfecting and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, and promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capability.

 

The first is to liberate and develop "productive forces". For example, the unprecedented initiatives unveiled earlier this year to cut taxes and reduce fees have brought down tax rate from 16% to 13% in manufacturing and some other industries, and from 10% to 9% in transportation and construction sectors.  This alone will reduce the tax burden by 2 trillion RMB for enterprises, especially private companies. Next year we will formulate the "14th Five-Year Program", the very first five-year program towards realizing the dream of becoming a powerful nation after completing the building of a moderately prosperous society. It will help further promote the coordinated economic development of different regions and city clusters and enhance the development of productive forces in a comprehensive manner.

 

The second is to implement the innovation-driven development strategy and enhance the ability to innovate.  A very important objective here is to promote the development of emerging industries such as hi-tech, 5G and artificial intelligence.  For example, Huawei is a technologically competitive private company which focuses on doing solid work and honest innovation. By spending over 10% of its revenue in research and development every year, Huawei has altogether invested more than 480 billion RMB in R&D over the past decade.  At present, Huawei owns 1554 standard-essential patents on 5G technologies, accounting for 15% of all patents of its kind, ranking the top in the world. Instead of stifling Huawei, the U.S. crackdown on the company only serves to help it better understand its strengths and weaknesses and help many Chinese companies to recognize where their opportunities lie.

 

The third is to further improve the socialist market economic system and create a market with greater power.  This is to enable the market to play a decisive role in the allocation of resources, and at the same time the government should also play its role well, including building a sound system for the protection of intellectual property rights. Since the establishment of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone in 2013, China has established 18 free trade zones in three batches in Shanghai, Guangdong, Fujian, Tianjin, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Henan, Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Hainan, Shandong, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Hebei, Yunnan and Heilongjiang.

 

The fourth is to further improve the government's ability to provide social services and to increase the effectiveness of "social governance".  For example, the targeted poverty alleviation initiative, which has been implemented for six years, reduced the number of poor people from 98.99 million in 2012 to 16.6 million in 2018. In six years, over 80 million people were lifted out of poverty, which is about 13 million every year. If this year we move another 10 million people out of poverty, we will only have about six million to help in the next year.  At the same time, as we implement the "rural revitalization" strategy, we are consistently putting in more effort in the work related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, including improving the social service network in rural areas and ensuring access to compulsory education, basic medical care and safe housing by the poor people. The rural areas of China will continue to see greater improvement.

 

As to the host province of our conference ---- Guangdong, Mr. Li Xi, Party Secretary of the province, gave a very good talk just now about its grand plans, speaking both at high-level and practically on the "Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao Greater Bay Area" and the "Shenzhen pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics". His speech is the best and newest manifestation of continuous reform and opening up.

 

IV.   New round of globalization and China’s continuous development

 

The "new journey of reform and opening up" and the resulting "greater development" are closely linked to the changes in the global landscape, especially the arrival of a new round of economic globalization.

 

In the second half of the first decade of the 21st century, there have been both significant progress and serious steps backwards in the development of economic globalization.  The significant progress is represented by China's proposal of "the Belt and Road Initiative", while the serious setbacks come from the United States’ retrogressive approach to globalization.

 

Let’s first talk about "the Belt and Road Initiative", which opens up an unprecedented new phase of economic globalization.  The previous rounds of globalization, rippling from the Atlantic to the Pacific, were basically all about the globalization of marine economy. But the Belt and Road Initiative will bring massive inland economies into globalization, integrating the marine and inland economies of the world, prompting a comprehensive economic rise in the eastern, central and western parts of China, promoting comprehensive economic cooperation and development of the entire Eurasian. continent and linking these economies with Africa and the Americas.  In fact, that is the biggest characteristic of the new round of economic globalization.

 

On the other hand, however, there are serious setbacks, which are the rising unilaterism and hegemonism of big power.  We have always acknowledged that the third round of economic globalization, launched in the 1970s and designed and led by the United States, has made useful contributions to the development of the world economy.  But at the same time, we have always clearly understood that the ultimate pursuit of the United States is to maintain its global dominance as the only superpower in the world.  When Trump came to power, he played new tricks by fighting big trade wars and threatening to withdraw from and even completely abandon globalization.  But the United States should not think that it can dictate world affairs. The fact that substantial progress has been made in the high-profile new round of high-level US-China economic and trade negotiations is a case in point.

 

At present, we are faced with an urgent and important issue: the era calls for a new framework for economic globalization.  The four-point proposal put forward by President Xi Jinping at the G20 Summit not long ago is a clear echo to this historic demand: first, to enlarge the pie of the world economy by upholding free trade; second, to explore new drivers of economic growth through innovation; third, to tackle the challenges of world economic imbalance through inclusive measures; and fourth, to improve the governance of the global economy in the interconnected world.

 

In short, the world is ushering in a new round (the fourth round) of economic globalization based on multi-polarity, with "community of shared future" supported by convergence of interests and communities of interests as its main axis and "peace and development" as its real theme.

 

V.   The key to the future of China is the Communist Party of China

 

Whether China can achieve new development at the new starting point of reform and opening up depends not on others but on China itself and on the Communist Party of China.

 

History has proven that the Chinese Communist Party can lead China to "stand up" and "grow prosperous", and the future will prove that the Chinese Communist Party can also lead China to "become powerful".  There are three reasons for this. First, as a political party founded almost a century ago, the Communist Party of China is deeply rooted in the fertile soil of the Chinese civilization and traditions. It is the vanguard of the workers’ class of China, the Chinese people and Chinese nation, who are devoting all their efforts to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Second, the Communist Party of China insists on adapting Marxism to the Chinese context. Therefore, while upholding the fine traditions in the Chinese civilization, the CPC is able to respond to the call of the times, advance with the times and steer the course of development. Third, the Communist Party of China has the courage to revolutionize itself. It can not only uphold the truth for the people, but also correct its mistakes for the people by consciously eliminating corruption from its system, and therefore maintain its advanced nature and purity.

 

There is no denying that the Chinese Communist Party has made mistakes, but time and again the CPC has proved that it is able to rise above its past mistakes and correct itself. The changing and challenging international and domestic situations require that the CPC and all the Chinese people to be more sober-minded and modest. Under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with President Xi Jinping at its core, China in the new era will grow into a powerful and amiable country. Also, we hope that the international community can understand and respect the efforts and aspirations of the Chinese people.

 

If our international friends are able to understand China from this perspective and to better understand the CPC and the Chinese people, and at the same time, if the CPC and the Chinese people are able to better understand the world, then it will make both China and the world better off!