Annaguey, Walter Benz G.

Collado, Flor Rae Ann

Ladwingon, Junalyn

Leo, Kiven

Papat-iw, Jyvi Roodh

Deng Xiaoping – China’s Reform and Opening Up

The 'Great Architect'

Numerous achievements would ensure Deng Xiaoping a major position in China's history – his role in
shaping the People's Republic of China, his steadfastness during persecution in the Cultural Revolution,
his extraordinarily balanced attitude even after return to power towards the development and recent
history of China, his all-round role after 1978 in leading the country. But one ensures him a position
among a tiny handful of people at the peak not only of Chinese but of world history. This was China's
extraordinary economic achievement after reforms began in 1978, and the decisive role this played not
only in the improvement of the living standards of Chinese people but the country's national
rejuvenation. So great was the impact of this that it may objectively be said to have altered the situation
not only of China but of the world.

Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening up is a foundation for a successful transition from a planned
economy to a market economy oriented towards the global market, achieving unprecedented high
growth rates.

These policies transformed the country from a poor and underdeveloped centrally-planned economy
into an economic powerhouse, increasingly driven by the market even regarded as "China's Model" of
development.

It also introduced private business and market incentives to what was a state-led communist system.
Prior to 1978, the private sector was virtually non-existent; today, private firms contribute to
approximately 70 percent of China’s GDP.

To get to this point, China underwent vast changes to its economic system over the past 40 years.
Despite the breadth of the changes, however, China’s economic reforms have been characterized by
gradualism and experimentalism, or “crossing the river by feeling the stones” as Deng famously once
said.

As a result of “reform and opening” and greater engagement with the international community, China
has enjoyed a remarkable period of economic and social development unprecedented in human history.
As World Bank President Jim Kim (Links to an external site.) noted in November, “China has increased its
per capita income 25-fold, and more than 800 million Chinese people lifted themselves out of poverty as
a result — more than 70 percent of the total poverty reduction in the world.” China today is one of the
largest economies of the world — by some measures, it is the world’s largest economy with tremendous
global political power and a rapidly improving military.

China's economic performance after the beginning of its 1978 reforms simply exceeded the experience
of any other country in human history. To give only a partial list:

• China achieved the most rapid growth in a major economy in world history.

• China experienced the fastest growth of living standards of any major economy.

• China lifted 620 million people out of internationally defined poverty.

• Measured in internationally comparable prices, adjusted for inflation, the greatest increase in
economic output in a single year in any country outside China was the U.S. in 1999, when it added
US$567 billion, whereas in 2010 China added US$1,126 billion – twice as much.

Xi Jinping – Communist Party

New ERA

What makes Xi the most powerful man today are the choices he made after becoming general secretary
of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in November 2012. Soon after, he became president of China.

Since then, he has systematically purged rivals within CCP and accumulated enormous power. With that,
a period when collective leadership was the prevailing norm has come to an end. He has assumed direct
authority over the People’s Armed Police and in 2016 he became commander-in-chief of the People’s
Liberation Army.

It’s hard to imagine any national leader among influential states can match the accumulation of political
power Xi wields. The combination of China’s clout stemming from its economic size and a politician who
has worked assiduously on monopolizing power makes it a dangerous thing for the world. Concentration
of enormous political power in an individual never ends well. There are simply no checks and balances.

Xi Jinping presents a threat to the world. And his own country too.

Strongmen are careful about what the public gets to know of their past. Therefore, it is wise to be
skeptical about their authorized stories. Given this caveat, it worth thinking about something that Xi
mentioned in a 2004 interview.

When President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, the Chinese people had already experienced three
decades of double digit growth.

But Mr Xi has also inherited a country with massive public and private debts, bloated state-owned
companies and higher expectations from a new and confident Chinese population who wanted the
Communist party to deliver public goods and improvements in welfare.

So here's how President Xi is trying to put a stamp on China's economy:

Rebalancing the economy: Mr Xi wants to move the economy away from manufacturing and exports to
focus on consumption and services. This ties in with the stated goal of boosting innovation, and he's had
some success with this. By some estimates the share of consumption in China's GDP has been growing.
Mr Xi's "One Belt One Road" initiative is also part of the "Great Rebalancing", as it is focused on getting
Chinese companies to build infrastructure projects overseas. But it's been criticised for exporting debt
overseas.

Reduce public and private debt: This in part was what the anti-corruption campaign was about -
although it was also about Mr Xi strengthening his grasp on power. Party officials in China's provinces
were racking up debt launching expensive and unnecessary investments. Clamping down on their
excesses was a way for Mr Xi to weed out provincial debt and kill off these vanity projects. The reform of
state-owned enterprises is also a part of this, but that appears to have been put on hold for now.
Reduce inequality and improve environmental protection: China's inequality has been rising as the
economy has grown. And at the beginning of his term, pollution became a massive social issue that
threatened the legitimacy of the Party. While he's talked tough on both of these issues in this year's
speech and tried to improve implementation of regulations, at the end of the day it's doubtful how
much he has achieved.

Deng vs Xi

While it's clear Mr Xi will go down in China's Communist Party constitution as the most elevated leader
since Mao Zedong, it's not as clear whether he will be able to match the economic achievements that
Deng Xiaoping had.

Deng was always going to come out better in this competition, just based on the hard numbers. Starting
from scratch is much simpler than trying to refashion the Chinese economy, as Mr Xi is attempting.

Mr Xi's economic achievements are important, but will never be revolutionary. There is no way they
could be.

The biggest revolution is a philosophical one - Mr Xi wants the world to recognise that China is a global
force - not just economically, but ideologically as well. He's offering China's way as an alternative model
to the West's - a way for other countries to grow their economies but "preserve their independence".

So expect Mr Xi's China is to continue on its assertive and confident path. Expect steady but slowing
economic growth - but most importantly expect an economy that's still heavily controlled from the top
down, not growing from the bottom up.

The collage is only a simple template where in the both upper sides of the collage, attached the photos
of Deng and Xi and China’s heart shape symbol in the middle. The two were placed both sides to portray
how they lead the China towards success.

At the center of the collage is a picture of how successful China is today through the impacts of the
reform and opening up and communist party as both contributions of the two leaders were placed at
the bottom, serving as the foundation of the China’s success today.

References:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/12/19/40-years-ago-deng-xiaoping-
changed-china-and-the-world/ (Links to an external site.)

https://www.china-briefing.com/news/economic-reform-china-opening-up-future-prospects/

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2014-08/22/content_33303318.htm (Links to an external site.)

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-41746705 (Links to an external site.)

http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/sub7/entry-5540.html