China's reform and opening up is a great revolution that has a profound impact on China and the world. This revolution began in 1978 and was proposed and founded by the core of the second-generation leadership collective of the Communist Party of China. The goal of reform and opening up is to liberate and develop the productive forces and promote the self-improvement and development of the socialist system through the mixed economic model and the principles of the market economy.
The main contributing factors to reform and opening up include economic demand, political dynamics, and international influence. Economically, Chinese mainland implements a planned economy, with social resources controlled and managed by the Party and the Communist Party. However, this system has largely hindered the development of productive forces. Politically, reform and opening up was promoted in the political struggle within the Communist Party of China. Internationally, reform and opening up has been affected by globalization, and China has begun to open up to the outside world, absorbing capital, technology, talents and ideas from all over the world.
The ideology of reform and opening up is mainly influenced by Marxism and practiced to test the truth.
The idea of the only standard. Marxism holds that the basic contradiction in society is the contradiction between the relations of production and the productive forces, and the contradiction between the superstructure and the economic base. The concept that practice is the only criterion for testing truth emphasizes seeking truth from facts, advancing with the times, and daring to be the first; these are all important spiritual connotations of reform and opening up.
The process of reform and opening up can be summed up as "internal reform and opening up to the outside world". In the reform and opening up, the "internal reform" implemented a mixed economic model, implemented a household contract responsibility system (commonly known as "large contracting") in agriculture, allowed private enterprises to no longer be owned by the state, and allowed foreign investment. Since then, Chinese mainland's economic system has gradually changed from a "planned economy" to a "socialist market economy", and was written into the Constitution of the People's Republic of China in 1993.
The "opening up" in the reform and opening up has enabled many overseas enterprises to enter the Chinese market, and a considerable number of Chinese enterprises have opened up overseas markets. During this period, a number of special economic zones such as Shenzhen, Xiamen and Zhuhai were born in the coastal areas, which played an extremely key role in Chinese mainland's foreign economic exchanges.
The benefits brought by reform and opening up are visible to the naked eye, and the vast number of Chinese people can truly feel the earth-shaking changes brought about by reform and opening up. GDP per capita increased from $115 in 1978 to $12,551 in 2021, reaching the income level of upper-middle countries. At the same time, the quality of life of the people has also been greatly improved.
However, reform and opening up have also brought about some problems, such as the dual-track system, price control, military business and other policies have failed, Chinese society has also appeared official downfall, corruption, privileges and other problems, economic reform has also encountered the original political system obstacles. In addition, Chinese mainland also lacks independent technology, lacks innovation ability, and is overly dependent on foreign countries in the process of development, which has caused serious environmental pollution.
Reform and opening up is a great revolution in China's history, which has changed China's destiny and appearance. From the brink of economic collapse to a prosperous power, this is the result of the joint efforts of the Chinese people. Although reform and opening up have brought some problems, the positive impact it has brought cannot be ignored. It is precisely under the impetus of reform and opening up that today's China has made a great leap from poverty to prosperity and strength.