Learn from Deng Xiaoping’s Theory and Firmly Promote the Reform
Author： Source： Date：2017-09-01
Facing with complicated social and economic conflicts and changing social trends, we have to stick to our stand fast to avoid misjudgment. As once there is any mistake, we may either miss the opportunity or make serious mistake and fail in the reform and the planning for the rise. Therefore, we need to review Deng Xiaoping’s theory on reform and opening up, stick to the right strategy, and create the sound environment domestic and overseas for institutional innovation.
The Reform and Opening-up launched by Deng is the biggest institutional innovation since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China 66 years ago. When looking back and learning from the past, Shenzhen, as a leading city in the reform, has been always in strong faith that further reform will be needed in China for a better future. Therefore, I would like to share the following views with you under today’s theme—institutional innovation.
I Understanding the national interests
Deng visited the United States in January 1979, which attracted the attention of the world. That is the first visit the Chinese leader of the Party paid to the United States. Deng, when the two countries were still opposite to each other in ideology, broke the barrier of the cold war and stated that the relationship of the two countries needed to be normalized for their respective interests. By making use of the US’s influence, China successfully earned the support of the international community and was ready to go back and catch up the development trend with other countries. Deng’s ideas about the western world are expressed in The Records of Deng Xiaoping:
“When considering the inter-country relationship, we should focus on the strategic interests. We need to carefully consider our long-term strategic interests, and respect the interests of others without haggling over the past conflicts or the difference in social institution and ideology.”
His simple words and great idea tell us that the countries shall accept the difference without arguing. This is the effort the CPC has made in dealing with different social institution and ideology, and a big step in changing the status of world powers, promoting inter-state cooperation and learning from other civilizations.
Deng toasted to the then President of the US, saying that we are different in social institution and ideology. But we both realized that our people’s interests and the call for world peace require us to re-consider the relationship from a long-term strategic perspective based on the international situation. His insight and words still sound practical, enlightening and mean a lot to today’s China.
Not long ago, President Xi Jinping visited the US before going to the UK where he and the UK government agreed to build the full strategic partnership toward the 21st century. The UK, as a western power, is the first one willing to set aside political prejudice against China and say goodbye to the camps demonizing China. The decision met the fundamental interests of the two countries and exerted critical influence on the whole world. Media claimed that the China-UK relationship has entered to a golden age. This is a historic moment after Deng’s visit to the US and worth our careful consideration.
There will be 70 years from the Reform and Opening-up to the 100th anniversary of the Founding of the PRC. Some scholar holds that the 70 years can be divided to two parts, the part before the 18th CPC committee and the part after it, each lasting 35 years. In the first part Deng started the Reform based on the view including “the Cultural Revolution is a political mistake”, “poverty shall not be one of the features of socialism” and “China is in urgent need of economic development”. Now President Xi is aiming to create a favorable environment for China overseas while promoting the reform within the country. The core idea is to realize social fairness and justice, and share the results of development with common people. The idea in theory makes sense very much. However, any reform that may affect interests will be strongly rejected by privileged groups. Due to the institutional and legal reform relatively lagging behind, a bunch of corrupted officials, without thinking about the national interests, struggled to protect their interests by undermining the reform. Therefore, we are under the pressure from the privileged and need to accelerate the reform with stronger will. We have to break the barriers and set up democratic institution. It is the key for a full and further reform in China.
II Learning from all the other civilizations in the world
With China establishing diplomatic relation with western countries and gradually getting involved in international community, Deng believed that the reform was a strategic decision rather than a temporary solution. He stated in January 1985 that the reform and opening-up would be set as a long-term and consistent policy that shall not be changed within the 20th century and the first 50 years of the 21st century. China will be more closely interacting with other countries in economy in the coming 50 years, and you can imagine how important these connections will be by then.
In Deng’s view, the opening-up means to learn the advanced technology and management knowledge and the modern civilization of other countries. According to UN’s global survey on national quality, China ranks behind in 118 indicators including moral quality, cultural quality, common education, physical quality and cohesion, with some indicators ranking second last. This is a greatly contrast with the country’s ranking as the second largest economy in the world. Such result is worth our reflection, as we used to be known as the state of manners in ancient times.
Harsh reality has told us that fast economic growth does not necessarily mean better social and culture development. Wealth gap and even social unrest may occur if some issues are not well handled. We have seen some people, when investigating corrupted officials, even high-ranking Party officials are shameless and have barely moral code. They ignored the code of conduct and are crazy for money. The Tianjin Blast this summer is exactly a lesson from which we have suffered the negative result of moral issues. As President Xi warned, “forgetting our traditions means cutting off our root of spiritual life; every one of the 1.3 billion populations can be a carrier of Chinese virtues.” These words mean that the rise of China needs the rise of the culture and rebuilding of moral and ethical codes.
Deng has pointed in 1992’s speech when he visited southern China that compared with capitalism, socialism is superior in learning and borrowing from all civilizations. Here all civilizations refer to the institutional resources required for economic reform and the ideological and institutional resources for all-round reform. For instance, we could learn from other countries’ principles and practices to monitor and control the public power, and restrain the power within the cage of institution. People have been exploring such practice for 800 years since the Constitution of the UK—the cradle of modern democracy emerged. The lessons learned and the practices over the 800 years belong to both the UK and other countries pursuing civilization, democracy, prosperity and harmony. We can learn from it based on China’s situation to promote our development. President Xi highlighted that we need to learn and borrow from the achievements of all the civilizations without abandoning our traditions. Therefore, we cannot copy the “tripartite political system”. Instead, we are going to learn from the balance of powers and related measures, public opinion-based supervision (including legislation of press laws), social organization development, and expression of public will. These are all the critical experiences valuable for our institutional innovation and better social governance.
III Correctly understanding the theme of development at different stages
We use to wrongly believe before the Reform that the 3rd World War was to start, and all the resources and efforts that should had been used for growth were put in military preparation. This has led to China’s missing the opportunity in a long and peaceful period after the WWII. While at the same time, the Four Asian Tigers were in fast rise which forms a sharp contrast to China’s political movement within the nation and its seclusion from the rest of the world.
Deng’s insight into the Reform met the needs of times, and the Party and all the people worked hard for economic growth and have made great achievements that constituted the solid foundation and national strength for China’s governance and future strategy. However, we must be sober that our economic aggregate ranks the second, while our per capita GDP ranks beyond 70th place. According to UN’s standard, there are still over 200 million poor populations in China. We have to make tremendous effort to get rid of poverty by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan and the well-off society by 2020. In recent years, rumors like “there must be a war with that country” are spreading and are supported by some forces. Though some powers are treating the rising China with the cold war attitude, we insist the principle of “peaceful rise” with strong military strength as our foundation. However, we should be much alert of the aggressive ideas and behaviors inciting extreme nationalism and wrongly judging the current situations. Because once such words result in conflict, China’s path to a strong nation will get interrupted.
Deng had made clear statement of the reform in the 3rd Volume of the Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping. He left the words as his political legacy, and pointed at the end: I would like more people to read the 3rd volume because what I mentioned is what we are doing all the time. We need to stick to them without deviation. We must go forward along the path, and avoid any unknowing swag. According to his rich experience, he realizes the existence of “unknowing swag”. He warned that China should be alert of being radical and prevent any possibility of being too conservative. Some people take the reform as “going capitalism”, holding that the major danger of peaceful evolution comes from financial sector. This is the typical view of being conservative. (Page 376, 3rd volume of the Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping)
His words in the 3rd volume mean a lot to us, and worth our deep reflection on our practices since the founding of the PRC, and on the experiences of the past international communistic movements. We need to keep maximizing the interests of the country: continue to carry out the reform without hesitation. Pursuing better economic growth is still the primary task to China when peace and development is the theme of our time.
Shenzhen is the first city President Xi visited after he took office. The statue of Deng on Bijia Hill is a signal from which the Chinese people have gained stronger confidence. The two parts of the reform joined together could help promote the national growth. This is the commitment made by the Party on further reform, and we shall be much confident on Deng’s decision about “sticking to the Party’s basic route for 100 years”.
The decision is Deng’s entrust on China’s future, and reflects the collective will of billions of Chinese people. Our insistence will definitely bring more trust of international community on China, and win the country a best environment for long-term growth by 2049.
I wish our nation a better and sustainable future. Thank you!
The Reform and Opening-up launched by Deng is the biggest institutional innovation since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China 66 years ago. When looking back and learning from the past, Shenzhen, as a leading city in the reform, has been always in strong faith that further reform will be needed in China for a better future. Therefore, I would like to share the following views with you under today’s theme—institutional innovation.
I Understanding the national interests
Deng visited the United States in January 1979, which attracted the attention of the world. That is the first visit the Chinese leader of the Party paid to the United States. Deng, when the two countries were still opposite to each other in ideology, broke the barrier of the cold war and stated that the relationship of the two countries needed to be normalized for their respective interests. By making use of the US’s influence, China successfully earned the support of the international community and was ready to go back and catch up the development trend with other countries. Deng’s ideas about the western world are expressed in The Records of Deng Xiaoping:
“When considering the inter-country relationship, we should focus on the strategic interests. We need to carefully consider our long-term strategic interests, and respect the interests of others without haggling over the past conflicts or the difference in social institution and ideology.”
His simple words and great idea tell us that the countries shall accept the difference without arguing. This is the effort the CPC has made in dealing with different social institution and ideology, and a big step in changing the status of world powers, promoting inter-state cooperation and learning from other civilizations.
Deng toasted to the then President of the US, saying that we are different in social institution and ideology. But we both realized that our people’s interests and the call for world peace require us to re-consider the relationship from a long-term strategic perspective based on the international situation. His insight and words still sound practical, enlightening and mean a lot to today’s China.
Not long ago, President Xi Jinping visited the US before going to the UK where he and the UK government agreed to build the full strategic partnership toward the 21st century. The UK, as a western power, is the first one willing to set aside political prejudice against China and say goodbye to the camps demonizing China. The decision met the fundamental interests of the two countries and exerted critical influence on the whole world. Media claimed that the China-UK relationship has entered to a golden age. This is a historic moment after Deng’s visit to the US and worth our careful consideration.
There will be 70 years from the Reform and Opening-up to the 100th anniversary of the Founding of the PRC. Some scholar holds that the 70 years can be divided to two parts, the part before the 18th CPC committee and the part after it, each lasting 35 years. In the first part Deng started the Reform based on the view including “the Cultural Revolution is a political mistake”, “poverty shall not be one of the features of socialism” and “China is in urgent need of economic development”. Now President Xi is aiming to create a favorable environment for China overseas while promoting the reform within the country. The core idea is to realize social fairness and justice, and share the results of development with common people. The idea in theory makes sense very much. However, any reform that may affect interests will be strongly rejected by privileged groups. Due to the institutional and legal reform relatively lagging behind, a bunch of corrupted officials, without thinking about the national interests, struggled to protect their interests by undermining the reform. Therefore, we are under the pressure from the privileged and need to accelerate the reform with stronger will. We have to break the barriers and set up democratic institution. It is the key for a full and further reform in China.
II Learning from all the other civilizations in the world
With China establishing diplomatic relation with western countries and gradually getting involved in international community, Deng believed that the reform was a strategic decision rather than a temporary solution. He stated in January 1985 that the reform and opening-up would be set as a long-term and consistent policy that shall not be changed within the 20th century and the first 50 years of the 21st century. China will be more closely interacting with other countries in economy in the coming 50 years, and you can imagine how important these connections will be by then.
In Deng’s view, the opening-up means to learn the advanced technology and management knowledge and the modern civilization of other countries. According to UN’s global survey on national quality, China ranks behind in 118 indicators including moral quality, cultural quality, common education, physical quality and cohesion, with some indicators ranking second last. This is a greatly contrast with the country’s ranking as the second largest economy in the world. Such result is worth our reflection, as we used to be known as the state of manners in ancient times.
Harsh reality has told us that fast economic growth does not necessarily mean better social and culture development. Wealth gap and even social unrest may occur if some issues are not well handled. We have seen some people, when investigating corrupted officials, even high-ranking Party officials are shameless and have barely moral code. They ignored the code of conduct and are crazy for money. The Tianjin Blast this summer is exactly a lesson from which we have suffered the negative result of moral issues. As President Xi warned, “forgetting our traditions means cutting off our root of spiritual life; every one of the 1.3 billion populations can be a carrier of Chinese virtues.” These words mean that the rise of China needs the rise of the culture and rebuilding of moral and ethical codes.
Deng has pointed in 1992’s speech when he visited southern China that compared with capitalism, socialism is superior in learning and borrowing from all civilizations. Here all civilizations refer to the institutional resources required for economic reform and the ideological and institutional resources for all-round reform. For instance, we could learn from other countries’ principles and practices to monitor and control the public power, and restrain the power within the cage of institution. People have been exploring such practice for 800 years since the Constitution of the UK—the cradle of modern democracy emerged. The lessons learned and the practices over the 800 years belong to both the UK and other countries pursuing civilization, democracy, prosperity and harmony. We can learn from it based on China’s situation to promote our development. President Xi highlighted that we need to learn and borrow from the achievements of all the civilizations without abandoning our traditions. Therefore, we cannot copy the “tripartite political system”. Instead, we are going to learn from the balance of powers and related measures, public opinion-based supervision (including legislation of press laws), social organization development, and expression of public will. These are all the critical experiences valuable for our institutional innovation and better social governance.
III Correctly understanding the theme of development at different stages
We use to wrongly believe before the Reform that the 3rd World War was to start, and all the resources and efforts that should had been used for growth were put in military preparation. This has led to China’s missing the opportunity in a long and peaceful period after the WWII. While at the same time, the Four Asian Tigers were in fast rise which forms a sharp contrast to China’s political movement within the nation and its seclusion from the rest of the world.
Deng’s insight into the Reform met the needs of times, and the Party and all the people worked hard for economic growth and have made great achievements that constituted the solid foundation and national strength for China’s governance and future strategy. However, we must be sober that our economic aggregate ranks the second, while our per capita GDP ranks beyond 70th place. According to UN’s standard, there are still over 200 million poor populations in China. We have to make tremendous effort to get rid of poverty by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan and the well-off society by 2020. In recent years, rumors like “there must be a war with that country” are spreading and are supported by some forces. Though some powers are treating the rising China with the cold war attitude, we insist the principle of “peaceful rise” with strong military strength as our foundation. However, we should be much alert of the aggressive ideas and behaviors inciting extreme nationalism and wrongly judging the current situations. Because once such words result in conflict, China’s path to a strong nation will get interrupted.
Deng had made clear statement of the reform in the 3rd Volume of the Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping. He left the words as his political legacy, and pointed at the end: I would like more people to read the 3rd volume because what I mentioned is what we are doing all the time. We need to stick to them without deviation. We must go forward along the path, and avoid any unknowing swag. According to his rich experience, he realizes the existence of “unknowing swag”. He warned that China should be alert of being radical and prevent any possibility of being too conservative. Some people take the reform as “going capitalism”, holding that the major danger of peaceful evolution comes from financial sector. This is the typical view of being conservative. (Page 376, 3rd volume of the Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping)
His words in the 3rd volume mean a lot to us, and worth our deep reflection on our practices since the founding of the PRC, and on the experiences of the past international communistic movements. We need to keep maximizing the interests of the country: continue to carry out the reform without hesitation. Pursuing better economic growth is still the primary task to China when peace and development is the theme of our time.
Shenzhen is the first city President Xi visited after he took office. The statue of Deng on Bijia Hill is a signal from which the Chinese people have gained stronger confidence. The two parts of the reform joined together could help promote the national growth. This is the commitment made by the Party on further reform, and we shall be much confident on Deng’s decision about “sticking to the Party’s basic route for 100 years”.
The decision is Deng’s entrust on China’s future, and reflects the collective will of billions of Chinese people. Our insistence will definitely bring more trust of international community on China, and win the country a best environment for long-term growth by 2049.
I wish our nation a better and sustainable future. Thank you!
