China’s Seven-Decades of Opening-up: Empowering Growth and Reforms

Jiang Xiaojuan (江小娟)1*

School of Public Policy & Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Abstract: This paper examines China’s seven-decades of opening-up and its achievements since 1949, presenting an overview of China’s importation of technology and formation of a modern industrial system in the first three decades, as well as opening-up and development in the last four decades. We discuss the rationale behind the gradualist approach to opening-up, focusing on how factor endowment, reform, and the opening-up policy have shaped China’s opening-up landscape. We also address the doubts and controversies arising from China’s opening-up and the positive effects of opening-up on reforms. Lastly, we present possible future trends for China’s transition towards the horizontal division of labor and neutral and institutional opening-up.

Keywords: opening-up, opening-up strategy, neutral opening-up, institutional opening-up

JEL Classification Code: P30, N17, O53

DOI: 10.19602/j.chinaeconomist.2021.07.02