Tributes to Reformers

The Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee on December 18, 1978 ushered in a new era of reform and opening up in China’s history. With the formal establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone on August 26, 1980, the journey to reform and opening-up took off in an all-round manner.

This is an important day that will go down in history.—workers

Explicit in the past four decades of reform, the reform and opening-up policy has won wide popularity and contributed to China’s impressive economic growth. It has been and will continue to be China’s core policy.

The large amount of inflows of talents to explore, reform and innovate in Shenzhen has turned the city into a successful demo of China’s reform and opening-up policy. The city has also evolved from a border village into a metropolis, a vivid symbol of the modernization of the country.
The great success of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone should be attributed first to Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening-up policy and the decision to establish the Special Economic Zone, as well as the joint efforts of every Shenzhener who spearheaded the reform.

Shenzhen Innovation and Development Institute is a new-type reform-oriented public policy think tank. In order to commemorate the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up, the SZIDI in 2016 formed a nomination committee composed of the seven former directors of the Commission for Economic Restructuring since the establishment of SEZ. After careful deliberation and consideration, the nomination committee finally nominated and selected 100 reformers of Shenzhen, as the representatives of  whom have made important contributions to Shenzhen's reform and opening up in the past four decades. Through the compilation of the 100 reformers of Shenzhen, we hope to trace the path of reform, recall the passion and spirit of reform.

The credibility and authority of the nomination come from
 the formation of a fair and nonpartisan nomination committee, consisting of seven former directors of Shenzhen Commission for Economic Restructuring since its establishment (covering the period from the mid-1980s to 2015), who witnessed and participated in the reforms a carefully selected pool of candidates from a wide variety of backgrounds from policymakers, entrepreneurs, activists, social workers, scholars, anyone who has led, planned, or practiced projects of reform
 a series of criteria qualifying that the candidate must have contributed to breakthroughs in institutional innovation and/or led to waves of reforms nationwide
 strict requirements for drafting the biographies of the 100 reformers of Shenzhen, emphasizing their roles in and contributions to major reform projects, highlighting the spirit of reform and innovation

This book is presented to you following strictly the aforementioned criteria, based on the stories of the 100 reformers collected and composed by Shenzhen Innovation and Development Institute. We hope that our readers will grasp a glimpse of the ebbs and flows of the times, the long and uphill settlement, and the courage and dedication of the pioneers and reformers.

This book is a brief history of reform. Narrating the vivid stories of the reformers, the book gives a detailed account of the reform process during which Shenzheners ventured to reform, survived and conquered all the difficulties along the way. They broke through the planned economy doctrine, helped construct the socialist market economy structure, and continued to be the staunch supporters of market economy reform, just to name a few.

This book unfolds the epical stories of the times. Exemplified through a close look at the Shenzhen SEZ, it reveals the telling adventures of different reformers of Shenzhen, recalling the unforgettable years of China's reform and opening up.

This book stages a magnificent movement celebrating pioneers of reform, who possess the perseverance to break away, innovate and the endurance to survive and conquer adversity. The unflagging spirit of reform and the ambition to innovate, running through the rise of Shenzhen in the past four decades, are deeply rooted in every Shenzhener’s soul.
We pay our sincere tribute to the reformers to show our deep appreciation and, more importantly, to carry on with their spirit. After 40 years of rapid economic growth, China is now entering a new era while Shenzhen once again spearheads the new round of reform. We hope to learn from their memorable experiences of the 100 reformers of Shenzhen, and look forward to more fruitful reforms in the years to come.