As in the past, integration key to the future

China needs to build on what has been achieved through reform and opening-up, but also needs to incorporate new initiatives and work out new policies for its further development

One of the things that makes China unique in the annals of economic history is the fact that it opened up to world right from the beginning of its current wave of economic development. This is in sharp contrast to other Asian countries, such as Japan and the Republic of Korea, which largely shielded their domestic markets from the outside world until after they were well down the path to becoming developed economies.

Late leader Deng Xiaoping famously observed in December 1978 that "Engels never flew in an airplane; Stalin never wore Dacron". His thinking recognized that China's economic development would need to be based on access to new technologies. An important source of those new technologies and ideas was Deng's decision to allow multinational companies to come and invest in China and to import technologies from overseas.