Op-ed: Reform helps China renew economic miracle

The economic growth target set by China, its declaration to further relax controls over market access, and a series of new moves to deepen reforms have made headlines of foreign media after the government work report was delivered to the annual legislative session on March 5. The topics they covered include China’s announcement to shorten the negative list for foreign investment, permit wholly foreign funded enterprises to operate in more sectors, as well as its decision to deepen reforms in sectors including power, oil and gas, and railways, and make the competitive aspects fully market based. Things are always changing and developing. Reforms with keen determination and effective actions will enable a country to keep abreast with the times and grasp opportunities at the first moment.

It is recognized worldwide that China’s improved quality in economic growth is resulted from its unremitting efforts to comprehensively deepen reform, whose contribution can be better understood if observing China’s eye-catching economic performance in 2018 against the global landscape. After the outbreak of the global financial crisis, some developed countries were clouded by widening wealth gap, decline of traditional industries, unemployment of blue-collar workers and other contradictions due to sluggish reforms. In China, with a strong commitment to push ahead with a supply-side structural reform, the world’s second largest economy maintained a medium to high-speed growth, realized a more sustained development and created more sense of gaining to its people. At the time when the world economy was testified by multiple risks including rising tide of protectionism, tight liquidity and gloomy market demands, China is busy with translating the “risks” into “opportunities” by solidifying its domestic strength. It boosted global market confidence by trying hard to drive a high-quality growth with greater reforms and higher-level opening up, and releasing more reform dividends.

In the eyes of Stephen Perry, chairman of the UK-based 48 Group Club, “comprehensively deepening reforms” is an engine driving the growth of Chinese economy. He attributed what China made today to a persistence in its own development path amidst the complicated international environment, to the solid steps in comprehensively deepening reforms, and to its commitment to build an open world economy. Reforms provide energy for development, while development creates precondition to reform. Chinese President Xi Jinping has also offered a description to the relationship between reforms and development by saying that reform is able to inject strong impetus into development process.

According to him, the reforms have been accompanying China’s development in the whole journey of its progress. Following the philosophy, China has made a series of epoch-making reforms to escort its course for high-quality development, and speed up China’s marches towards growth. The country has tried hard to raise the efficiency of resource utilization by eliminating ineffective supply and weeding out outdated production capacity, accelerate economic restructuring by fostering new drivers and upgrading traditional engines, as well as seek green growth by discarding growth rate fetish. “China will continue to pursue reforms at its own pace and in its own way,” an article published on Project Syndicate previously decoded the secrets to China’s success. A functioned governance system and sound administration capacity can back up the country to reform as planned in a steady pace. Structural factors are still standing on the way to hinder the world’s medium- and long-term growth, which means that structural reform is still a key agenda faced by the whole world. When pushing ahead with reforms, China’s strong leadership and ability to act has provided reference for policy-makers in worldwide. As the world is undergoing unprecedented changes in centuries, China’s endeavor to continue comprehensively deepening reforms will help the country renew its miracle. Its steps along the course not only keep abreast with historic trend, but also lead development in the era.

By Zhong Sheng

(People’s Daily)