Private economy thrives thanks to reform policy

Number of self-employed people has risen substantially since 1978

In the 40 years since China began its reform and opening-up, the number of self-employed people in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, has multiplied by 752 times.

In 2017, the city's GDP stood at 1.05 trillion yuan ($153 billion). Its private economy, which reached 689.6 billion yuan, accounted for 65.6 percent of the GDP, according to the Wuxi bureau of statistics.