In 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party made the great historical choice of reform and opening up, opening up a new period in the history of China's economic and social development. 35 years ago, in the face of complex changes in the domestic and foreign environments and major risks and challenges, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council united and led the whole country of all ethnic groups, to sharpen their courage, overcome the difficulties, push forward the reforms, and persist in opening up, socialism with Chinese characteristics. Socialism with Chinese characteristics continues to flourish and vitality, China's economic development and social undertakings have made great achievements that have attracted the world's attention.
I. Economic development has taken a great leap forward, and the comprehensive national strength and international influence have realized a historic change from weakness to strength.The 35 years since the reform and opening up have been a period of vigorous development of China's national economy, with the total economic output rising to a new level, and a period in which our comprehensive national power and international competitiveness have grown from weak to strong, and in which we have successfully realized the leap from a low-income country to an upper-middle-income country.
The economy has maintained rapid growth, with an average annual economic growth rate of up to 9.8%.
From 1979 to 2012, China's GDP grew at an average annual rate of 9.8%, while the world's economy grew at an average annual rate of only 2.8% during the same period. China's high-speed growth period lasted longer and faster than the economic take-off period of Japan and Asia's "Four Little Dragons", creating a new miracle in the history of human economic development.
The total economic output has risen to a new level, and the comprehensive national strength has been greatly enhanced. GDP rapidly jumped from 364.5 billion yuan in 1978 to 518.942 billion yuan in 2012. Among them, it took eight years to rise from 1978 to 1 trillion yuan in 1986, and five years to rise to 2 trillion yuan in 1991, and an average of nearly 1 trillion yuan a year for the following 10 years, exceeding the 10 trillion yuan mark in 2001, an average of 2 trillion yuan a year from 2002 to 2006, and more than 20 trillion yuan in 2006, and 10 trillion yuan every two years thereafter. In 2012 it had reached 52 trillion yuan.
The total economic output of China has steadily risen and its contribution to the world's economic growth has continued to increase; in 1978, China's total economic output was only the 10th largest in the world; in 2008, it surpassed that of Germany and ranked third in the world; in 2010, it surpassed that of Japan and ranked second in the world, making it the world's second-largest economy, second only to that of the United States. The share of the total economy in the world increased from 1.8% in 1978 to 11.5% in 2012. since the outbreak of the international financial crisis in the second half of 2008, China has become an important engine driving the recovery of the world economy, with an average annual contribution rate of more than 20% to the world's economic growth in 2008-2012.
Foreign exchange reserves have grown substantially, realizing a huge transformation from a foreign exchange shortage country to the world's largest foreign exchange reserve country.
In 1978, China's foreign exchange reserves amounted to only 167 million U.S. dollars, ranking 38th in the world, with a per capita of only 0.17 U.S. dollars, which is less than 1 yuan in RMB. With the development and growth of China's foreign economy, the current account trade surplus continues to accumulate, the shortage of foreign exchange reserves quickly become history, in 1990 foreign exchange reserves of more than ten billion U.S. dollars, to 11.1 billion U.S. dollars, more than one hundred billion U.S. dollars in 1996 to 105 billion U.S. dollars, more than 1 trillion U.S. dollars in 2006 to 1,066.3 billion U.S. dollars, more than Japan in the world's first place, 2011 exceeded 3 trillion U.S. dollars and reached 3311.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years.
II. The economic structure has changed profoundly, and the coordination and sustainability of economic development have tended to increase.The 35 years since the reform and opening up have been a period of deepening understanding of the importance of economic restructuring and changing the mode of development, a period of continuous adjustment of the economic structure in the midst of sustained and relatively rapid economic growth, and a period of increasing comprehensiveness, coordination and sustainability of economic development.
The industrial structure has been continuously optimized. over the past 35 years, the three industries have all developed significantly in the adjustment, with the fundamental position of agriculture being continuously strengthened, the industry achieving sustained and rapid development, and the service industry rapidly developing and expanding. from 1979 to 2012, the added value of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries grew by an annual average of 4.6%, 11.3% and 10.8% in real terms, respectively. The ratio of the added value of the three industries to the GDP was adjusted from 28.2:47.9:23.9 in 1978 to 10.1:45.3:44.6 in 2012, and compared with 1978, the proportion of the primary industry in 2012 dropped by 18.1 percentage points, the proportion of the secondary industry dropped by 2.6 percentage points, and the proportion of the tertiary industry rose sharply by 20.7 percentage points.
The pace of urbanization has accelerated significantly. The level of urbanization rose from 17.9% in 1978 to 52.6% in 2012, an increase of 34.7 percentage points, with an average annual increase of 1.0 percentage point. The total urban population increased by an average of 15.86 million per year, while the total rural population decreased by an average of 4.35 million per year. The rising level of urbanization promotes the coordinated development of urban and rural economies, facilitates the upgrading of residents' consumption structure, and continues to give rise to new points of economic growth, representing the greatest potential for expanding domestic demand. As the process of urbanization and industrialization accelerates, the capacity of cities and towns to absorb employment is also growing. The share of urban employment in the country rose from 23.7% in 1978 to 48.4% in 2012, while the share of rural employment fell from 76.3% to 51.6%.
Third, supply capacity has been greatly improved, with goods and services realizing a huge shift from shortage to abundance and sufficiency.The 35 years since the reform and opening up have been 35 years since the gradual establishment of China's industrial system with a complete range of categories and a reasonable layout, 35 years since the supply capacity of commodities and services has been greatly enhanced, and 35 years since the output of major industrial and agricultural products jumped to the forefront of the world.
The supply of agricultural products has not only solved the problem of feeding one-fifth of the world's population, but also provided important support for the rapid advance of industrialization. 35 years, the Party Central Committee and the State Council have always placed agricultural production in a very important strategic position, and have done everything possible to promote agricultural production and stabilize food production, which has not only succeeded in solving the problem of feeding the Chinese and realizing a qualitative improvement in the standard of living of the people but also provided abundant raw materials for industrial development. In 2012, grain output reached 589.58 million tons, an increase of 93.5% over 1978, with "nine consecutive increases" since 2004, and stabilized at a level of over 500 million tons for six consecutive years; cotton output was 6.84 million tons, an increase of 2.2 times over 1978; oilseed output was 34.37 million tons, an increase of 5.6 times; and oilseed production was 34.37 million tons, an increase of 5.6 times; sugar production of 134.85 million tons, an increase of 4.7 times; fruit production of 240.57 million tons, an increase of 35.6 times; fish production of 59.08 million tons, an increase of 11.7 times. Meat production was 83.87 million tons, an increase of 6.9 times compared with 1979.In 2011, the output of grains, meat, seed cotton, peanuts, tea and fruits steadily ranked first in the world, while rapeseed, sugarcane and soybeans ranked second, third and fourth. In terms of per capita level, per capita grain output reached 436.5 kilograms in 2012, an increase of 36.9% over 1978; per capita output of cotton, oilseeds, sugar and aquatic products reached 5.1 kilograms, 25.4 kilograms, 99.8 kilograms and 43.7 kilograms respectively, an increase of 1.2 times, 3.7 times, 3.0 times and 8.0 times respectively.
Industrial production capacity has increased rapidly, growing from a backward agricultural country to a world manufacturing power. Since the reform and opening up, China's industrialization process has started rapidly, the level of industrialization has increased significantly, and the output of major industrial products has grown rapidly. in 2012, the output of raw coal reached 3.65 billion tons, an increase of 4.9 times compared with 1978; crude steel was 720 million tons, an increase of 21.8 times; cement was 2.21 billion tons, an increase of 32.9 times; automobiles numbered 19.28 million vehicles, an increase of 128.3 times; household refrigerators increased from 28,000 units in 1978 to 84.27 million units in 2012; color TV sets increased from 0.4 million units to 130 million units. Mobile communication handhelds and microelectronic computers have grown from scratch, with output reaching 1.18 billion and 350 million units respectively in 2012.Over the past 35 years, China's industrialization process has continued to advance, and it has grown from a backward agricultural country to a major manufacturing country in the world. According to the World Bank data, the added value of China's manufacturing industry has reached 17.6% of the world in 2010. According to the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC), China ranks first in 7 out of 22 major categories, and the output of more than 220 industrial products such as iron and steel, cement and automobiles ranks first in the world.
Fourth, infrastructure and basic industries have developed greatly, and the supporting conditions for economic development have improved significantly.The 35 years since the reform and opening up, China's infrastructure and basic industry development has made a qualitative leap of 35 years, is energy, transportation, communications and other bottlenecks continue to ease the 35 years, but also gradually establish a more complete infrastructure and basic industry system and form a comparative advantage of 35 years.
Energy production capacity continues to improve.
With the advancement of industrialization, China has gradually become a major energy consumer, and at the same time, the energy production capacity has also been continuously improved, the energy self-sufficiency rate to maintain a high level, to a certain extent, to ensure the national economic security. 2012, China's total energy production amounted to 3.32 billion tons of standard coal, an increase of 4.3 times compared with 1978, with an average annual growth rate of 5.0%. During the same period, China's total energy consumption grew at an average annual rate of 5.6%, with a small gap between the growth rate of energy production and the total energy self-sufficiency rate reaching over 90%. The structure of energy production has been continuously optimized, and the proportion of clean energy and renewable energy production, such as hydropower, nuclear power, wind power, etc., in total energy production has increased from 3.1% in 1978 to 10.3% in 2012.
Transportation facilities are becoming more and more perfect. over the past 35 years, China's transportation network has been continuously improved, transportation capacity has been enhanced, and transportation efficiency has been continuously improved, which has strongly supported the development of various industries. in 2012, China's railroad mileage reached 98,000 kilometers, an increase of 88.8% compared with 1978 and ranked second in the world; highway mileage of 4.24 million kilometers, an increase of 3.8 times; The mileage of civil aviation routes was 3.28 million kilometers, an increase of 21.0 times; the mileage of oil (gas) pipelines was 90,000 kilometers, an increase of 9.9 times; and the cargo throughput of major coastal ports was 6.65 billion tons, an increase of 32.5 times, ranking first in the world for many consecutive years. Some modern transportation facilities have grown rapidly from scratch. At the beginning of the reform and opening up, there were no highways in China, but in 2012, the mileage of China's highways reached 96,200 kilometers, ranking second in the world. The rapid development of high-speed railroads and the production of rolling stock with a speed of up to 350 kilometers per hour have marked that China's railroad transportation has reached the international advanced level, and in 2012, the mileage of high-speed railways in operation reached 9,356 kilometers, ranking first in the world. Internet facilities have developed rapidly, with the Internet penetration rate increasing rapidly from 4.6% in 2002 to 42.1% in 2012.
Fifth, the foreign economy has taken a great leap forward, realizing a great historical transition from being closed and semi-closed to opening up on all fronts.The 35 years since the reform and opening up are 35 years of China's increasing integration into the international market and the continuous expansion of the breadth and depth of opening up to the outside world, 35 years of our country's transformation from a large-scale "bringing in" to a large-scale "going out", and 35 years of our country's seizing the opportunities of globalization. It has also been 35 years since China seized the opportunity of globalization to become a major trading nation in the world.
The total volume of foreign trade has been rising.
In the early stage of reform and opening up, China's foreign economic exchanges were very limited, coupled with the low level of domestic marketization, resulting in relative isolation from the international market. 1978, China's total import and export of goods was only 20.6 billion U.S. dollars, the world's 29th largest, and exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars in 1988, 200 billion U.S. dollars in 1994, 300 billion U.S. dollars in 1997, and 1 billion U.S. dollars in 2004. billion in 1994, exceeded 300 billion U.S. dollars in 1997, exceeded 1 trillion U.S. dollars mark in 2004, in 2012, the total amount of import and export of goods has reached 3,867.1 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 186 times over 1978, with an average annual growth rate of 16.6%, second only to the U.S., ranking second in the world; the total amount of exports of goods of 2048.7 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 209 times, with an average annual growth rate of 17.0%, ranked first in the world; the total amount of imports of goods of 1818.4 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 166 times, an average annual growth rate of 16.2%, ranking second in the world. 2012, China's total exports and imports of goods accounted for the world's total of 11.2% and 9.8% respectively.
The structure of import and export commodities is constantly optimized. At the beginning of the reform and opening up, China's export commodities were mainly primary products, but with the advancement of reform and opening up, the value-added of export commodities has been greatly improved, and the international competitiveness has been greatly enhanced. The proportion of primary products in total exports decreased from 50.3% in 1980 to 4.9% in 2012, while the proportion of manufactured goods increased from 49.7% to 95.1%. At the same time, the composition of imported goods has evolved in line with changes in national power and openness. The share of imports of manufactured goods in total imports of goods increased rapidly from 65.2% in 1980 to 87.5% in 1985, after which it basically remained above 80% until 2003, reflecting the improvement of China's consumption capacity. Since then, the upgrading of the domestic industrial system has gradually lowered the proportion of imports of manufactured goods, and the proportion of imports of manufactured goods has shown a clear downward trend since 2003, falling to 65.1% in 2012. From a comprehensive point of view, China's foreign trade mode in the early stage of reform and opening up is mainly to exchange primary products for manufactured products, in 1980, the net export of primary products was 2.16 billion U.S. dollars, and the net import of manufactured products was 4.05 billion U.S. dollars; from the mid-1990s, the pattern of exchanging primary products for manufactured products was gradually finalized, and in 2012, the net import of primary products amounted to 534.4 billion U.S. dollars, and the net export of manufactured products amounted to 764.7 billion U.S. dollars. billion U.S. dollars.
Introduction of foreign capital and outward investment activities have become increasingly frequent. Since the reform and opening up, China has given full play to the advantages of resources, labor and other factors and the advantages of a huge potential market, becoming a hot spot for international direct investment, the scale of utilization of foreign investment has been expanding, and foreign direct investment has become an important force to promote China's economic development and technological progress. 1979-2012, the actual use of foreign direct investment of 1276.1 billion U.S. dollars, 1984-2012 with an average annual growth rate of 18.0%. From 1984 to 2012, the actual use of FDI amounted to US$127.61 billion, with a high annual average growth rate of 18.0%. China has been the developing country absorbing the most foreign direct investment for many years, and its world ranking has risen to the second place. In recent years, as the strength of China's enterprises has increased, the pace of "going out" has begun to increase. China's net outward FDI increased rapidly from 26.5 billion dollars in 2007 to 87.8 billion dollars in 2012, and the stock of outward FDI reached 531.9 billion dollars at the end of 2012.
Sixth, people's lives have improved greatly, realizing a historic leap from insufficient food and clothing to overall well-offness and moving toward comprehensive well-offness.The 35 years since the reform and opening up have been the 35 years in China's history in which the people have received the most benefits and the living standards have improved the fastest, and in which the lives of urban and rural residents have been transformed from insufficient food and clothing to overall well-offness, and have progressed to comprehensive well-offness, and in which the social security cause has progressed from a low level to the establishment of a system to a full-scale advancement.
Employment has continued to expand. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council have always placed employment in a very important position. After entering a new stage of transformation and development, and in accordance with the profound changes in the demographic structure and employment situation, it has implemented the strategy of giving priority to employment and a more active employment policy, which has eased the contradiction in employment. from 1978 to 2012, the number of employed people in China increased from 401.52 million to 767.04 million, with an average annual increase of 10.75 million; the registered urban unemployment rate has remained basically stable for a long time. At the same time, a large number of rural surplus laborers have been transferred to non-agricultural industries in an orderly manner; in 2012, the number of rural migrant workers in China reached 260 million.
The income of urban and rural residents has increased significantly. over the past 35 years, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have deepened the reform of the income distribution system, striving to synchronize the growth of residents' income with economic development, the growth of labor remuneration with the increase of labor productivity, and to take into account both efficiency and fairness, thus ensuring a rapid growth of the income and wealth of the urban and rural residents. 2012 saw the per capita disposable income of the urban residents reach RMB 24,565, 71 times higher than that of 1978, with an annual increase of 71 times. 1978, an increase of 71 times, or an average annual increase of 13.4 percent, or an average annual increase of 7.4 percent after deducting the price factor; the per capita net income of rural residents was 7,917 yuan, an increase of 58 times, or an average annual increase of 12.8 percent, or an average annual increase of 7.5 percent after deducting the price factor. The wealth owned by urban and rural residents has increased significantly; at the end of 2012, the balance of urban and rural residents' RMB savings deposits amounted to RMB 39.96 trillion yuan, an increase of 1,896 times over that at the end of 1978, with an average annual growth rate of 24.9%. The scale of financial assets such as stocks and bonds has continued to expand. Property income owned by urban and rural residents has risen from none to 2.6% of all annual income per capita in 2012.
The standard of living and quality of life of residents have greatly improved; in 2012, the per capita cash consumption expenditure of urban residents amounted to RMB 16,674, an increase of 52.6 times compared with that of 1978, with an average annual nominal growth rate of 12.4%; the per capita consumption expenditure of rural residents amounted to RMB 5,908, an increase of 49.9 times, with an average annual nominal growth rate of 12.3%. The consumption structure of urban and rural residents has been significantly optimized; in 2012, the Engel coefficient for urban residents was 36.2%, a decrease of 21.3 percentage points from 1978; the Engel coefficient for rural residents was 39.3%, a decrease of 28.4 percentage points. Living conditions have improved greatly; in 2012, the per capita residential floor space for urban residents was 32.9 square meters, an increase of 26.2 square meters over 1978; the per capita housing space for rural residents was 37.1 square meters, an increase of 29.0 square meters. The field of consumption continues to expand, and material life is greatly enriched. Color TVs, refrigerators, air-conditioners, telephones and other consumer durables have gradually become popular, and the ownership of automobiles, computers and other high-grade consumer durables has risen sharply; at the end of 2012, the average number of mobile telephones, computers and family automobiles owned by urban households per 100 households was 212.6, 87.0 and 21.5 respectively, an increase of 193.1, 77.3 and 21.0 respectively compared with that of the end of 2000.
Comprehensive promotion of social security. over the past 35 years, China's social security cause has gone through an evolutionary process from a low level to the establishment and improvement of the system to comprehensive promotion. In recent years, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, in accordance with the guidelines of full coverage, basic protection, multi-level and sustainability, focusing on enhancing fairness, adapting to mobility and ensuring sustainability, have actively promoted the construction of social security undertakings, and have basically built a social security system covering both urban and rural areas up to the present time.At the end of 2012, the number of people participating in the basic old age pension insurance for urban workers nationwide amounted to 304,268,000 people, which was 247,165,000 more than that at the end of 1989. At the end of 2012, there were 304,268,000 people participating in basic pension insurance for urban workers nationwide, an increase of 247,165,000 over the number at the end of 1989; the number of people participating in basic medical insurance for urban workers and unemployment insurance was 198,613,000 and 152,247,000 respectively, an increase of 194,867,000 and 72,569,000 over the number in 1994; the number of people participating in social pension insurance for urban and rural residents was 483,695,000; and 2,566 counties (municipalities and districts) were carrying out the work of the new type of rural cooperative medical care. The participation rate in the new rural cooperative medical care was 98.3 percent; 21.435 million urban residents and 53.445 million rural residents were guaranteed a minimum living standard by the government.
Poverty alleviation has made remarkable achievements. From 1978 to 2012, China has adopted different rural poverty standards. According to the 1978 standard, there were about 250 million people in absolute rural poverty nationwide in 1978, accounting for about one-fourth of the entire population, and the number dropped to 14.79 million in 2007, lifting an average of 8.11 million people out of poverty each year. According to 2008 standards, the number of rural poor in 2007 was 43.2 million, falling to 26.88 million in 2010, with an average of 5.44 million people being lifted out of poverty each year. According to the new poverty alleviation standards set in 2010, the rural poor population in 2010 was 165.67 million, and in 2012 it was 98.99 million, less than 10 percent of the entire population, with an average of 33.34 million people lifted out of poverty each year.
VII. Great progress has been made in social undertakings, showing a shift from a relative lag in the development of social undertakings to comprehensive and coordinated economic and social development.The 35 years since the reform and opening up have been 35 years of great progress in social undertakings such as science, education, culture and health in China, 35 years of consolidation and development of social harmony and stability, and 35 years of increasing coordination of economic and social development.
Investment efforts have been made to deepen comprehensive reforms in the field of education and vigorously promote equity in education, resulting in a series of achievements. The degree of education popularization has increased significantly, and free nine-year compulsory education in urban and rural areas has been fully realized. The national education level has increased significantly, with the average number of years of education for people aged 6 and above rising from 5.2 years in 1982 to 8.9 years in 2012. 2012 saw the enrollment of 6.89 million students in general higher education at the undergraduate and specialized levels, an increase of 16.1 times compared with 1978; the enrollment was 23.91 million, an increase of 26.9 times; and there were 6.25 million graduates, an increase of 36.9 times, which better met the demand for all kinds of talents for economic and social development. The demand for all kinds of talents for economic and social development has been well met.
Fruitful achievements in science and technology Over the past 30 years, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have consistently placed scientific and technological innovation at the core of the overall national development, continuously increased investment in science and technology, deepened the reform of the science and technology system, and perfected the evaluation criteria for scientific and technological innovation, incentives, and transformation mechanisms, so that China's scientific and technological undertakings have achieved fruitful results. 2012, the expenditure for research and experimental development (R&D) reached 1,029.8 billion yuan, an increase of 6.25 million over the 1995 figure, which is the highest in the world. In 2012, the expenditure on research and experimental development (R&D) reached 1,029.8 billion yuan, an increase of 28.5 times over 1995, accounting for 1.98% of GDP, up 1.4 percentage points; 217,100 invention patents were applied for and authorized, an increase of 63 times. A number of major scientific and technological achievements have been launched one after another. Major scientific projects such as the Positive and Negative Electron Collider have been built, the Qinshan and Daya Bay nuclear power plants have been successfully connected to the grid, and the Galaxy series of giant computers have been continuously upgraded and successfully developed. In recent years, China has made major breakthroughs in the fields of manned spaceflight, manned deep diving, genetic engineering, high-performance computers, new materials, quantum information, 3D printing, etc., laying a good foundation for the successful transformation into an innovative country.
In short, since 1978, China's economic and social development has gone through 35 years of extremely extraordinary glorious journey, 35 years of fruitful reform, 35 years of opening up extraordinary achievements. The vivid statistics are the best witness to this. Of course, China's reform and opening up has not been a straight path, and over the past 35 years, we have been tested and painstakingly explored. Before the challenge of every crisis, under the experience of every risk, the Party Central Committee and the State Council have always taken reform and opening up as a strong impetus to relay the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, writing a magnificent epic of the Chinese nation's unremitting self-improvement and tenacious progress.
Source - People's Daily Online:
/n/2013/1106/c1001-23444065.html