The right direction

President Hu Jintao yesterday dispelled worries that the central leadership could veer away from the path of reform and opening up because of domestic and international challenges. The country will stick to reform and opening up because they are basically responsible for all economic miracles and social progress.

That was a key point of Hu's speech on the 30th anniversary of the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Communist Party of China's Central Committee, which started the reform and opening-up process.

The decision to focus on economic construction rather than class struggle just two years after the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) took the country in the right direction, and pulled it back from the brink of economic breakdown. Factories began production to meet market demand instead of taking orders from the government, and private businesses flourished alongside State-owned enterprises.

Reform and opening up led the country on the path from impoverishment to rapid development, transforming it into the world's fourth largest economy in three decades. The country has maintained an average annual growth rate of 9.8 percent, more than three times the world average, during the past 30 years.

The importance of the past three decades made Hu single out the reform and opening up as one of the three major revolutions in 20th century China - on par with the 1911 revolution that overthrew the more than 2,000 years of feudal rule, and the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The reform not only replaced the planned economy with a dynamic socialist market economy, but also helped break ideological shackles that had dominated people's thinking and actions.

It is true that despite the 30 years of reform the agricultural foundation is still weak, some rural areas are still backward, an all-encompassing social security network is still lacking, the rich-and-poor divide has widened, and economic growth in many parts of the country has come at the cost of the environment.

But this is not the time to rue missed opportunities. This is the time to resolve afresh to overcome these problems. As Hu said, standing still or regressing will only lead to a dead end. This is a warning against falling back to the old system.

We cannot give up the reform and opening up just because there are problems along the path. Instead, we have to solve them by intensifying reform and international cooperation. The deepening global financial crisis and economic slowdown demand that the country continue to focus more on economic development.

Again it is true exporters have been suffering because demand has fallen overseas. But the government has already taken steps to boost domestic consumption to offset the fallout of a shrinking international market. If handled well, the country could transform the global financial crisis into an opportunity and change its growth structure.

This is just one example. We can seek other ways, too, to continue the reform and opening up even if that means adjusting our policies constantly to meet challenges that crop up in today's fast changing domestic and international situations.

(China Daily 12/19/2008 page8)