By Zhong Sheng
Since China’s reform and opening-up, the Chinese people have made remarkable achievements in development with their diligence and wisdom under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
Over the decades, China’s rapid development, whichhas benefited from exchanges and cooperation with countries around the world, has in turn provided sustained growth impetus and important opportunities for other countries, including the U.S.It is bothan indisputable fact and a general consensus among the international community.
However, some U.S. politicians have shamelessly attempted to tamper with history and made the ridiculous argument that China’s reform and opening-up is the U.S. saving China by nature.
Such brazen acts, which have revealed extremely unhealthy mindset of certain politicians in the U.S., are the results of ignorance,shameless political calculationsand ulterior motives.
It must be understood that any country’s development depends essentially on itself, and no country should ever claim itself as a savior of another country.It is even more impossible for China, a major country with 1.4 billion people, to have relied on gifts from foreign countries for development.
“Openness brings progress while seclusion leads to backwardness,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping, adding that China cannot develop itself in isolation from the world, and the world needs China for global prosperity. This is also one of the valuable inspirations China’s reform and opening-up has offered the world.
Thanks to China’s policy of reform and opening-up, China and developed countries including the U.S. have been able to complement one another in terms of production factors and eventually enjoy mutuallybeneficial and win-win results, interconnected growth and common prosperity.
It’s worth mentioning that China has had to constantlyovercome suppression, obstruction and interception from the U.S. in the course of its development.
In the early 1990s, the U.S. imposed large-scale economic sanctions on China and prevented China from restoring its status as a signatory to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
Later, it has hindered China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and unilaterally provoked economic and trade frictionsagainst China.
It is by surmounting numerous difficulties along the road of openness and development that China has secured remarkable achievements.
Such achievementsshould be ultimately attributed to the Chinese people, who have constantly promoted reform and opening-up and struggled for development with their diligence and wisdom under the leadership of the CPC.
Great achievements come from lofty morals and huge courage, said Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State, adding that China’s economic achievements derived from China’s self-confidence, rather than the support of foreign governments.
The U.S. was faced with some major challenges andneeded China’s development, he noted.
China’seconomic miracle is in fact the result of great heart-touching efforts and hard work.
During its development, the country hasrelied on the solid and unremitting efforts of generations of Chinese people, which is represented in the typical case of “800 million shirts in exchange for a Boeing airplane”.
It has alsorelied on fulfilling its own responsibility in good times and in adversity, without exporting or shifting problems elsewhere, but blazing its own path with bold experiments, based on its own conditions, experience and lessons as well as the achievements of other civilizations.
China’s door is by no means only open for the U.S., but for all countries and regions in the world.
China has become the world’s second largest economy, one of the largest trading partners of world’s major economies, and a major stabilizer and engine of the world economy.
The country has actually used more than $2 trillion of foreign capitalaccumulatively since the beginning of its statistics for foreign investment in 1987, of which over$80 billion has beenfrom the U.S., accounting for only about 4 percent of China’stotal inbound foreign investment.
In the face of such data, whocan draw the absurd conclusion that China’s development and growth are merely the result of the favors given by the U.S. if he or shedoes not have ulterior motives?
China’s door will only open still wider. What China wants is to welcome guests from across the globe, benefit the whole world, and pursue common development with countries around the world.
The Chinese people are glad to see other countries enjoyhuge opportunities and benefit from China’s development,and are always ready to welcome people from all countries to the express train of China’s development.
Numerous facts have incontrovertiblyproventhat the U.S. has gained enormous benefits in the course of China’s reform and opening-up.
The bilateral trade volume between China and the U.S. has increased by over 250 times fromthe early days since the establishment of the diplomatic ties between the two countries, while the two-way investmentbetween China and the U.S. has jumped from almost zero to nearly $240 billion.
The nice and inexpensive goods made in Chinahave been best buys for American consumers.China’svast market and sound business environment have generated huge profits for American companies.
From 2001 to 2016, the volume of U.S. exports of bulk commoditiesto China increased by 5 times, according to relevant Western institutions.
Over 70,000 American enterprises have invested in China, with their total sales volume reaching $700 billion.And 97 percent of these enterprisesare making a profit.
Even against the backdrop ofthe China-U.S. economic and trade frictions and the COVID-19 epidemic, the vast majority of U.S. companies in China still hope to stay in China and expand investment in the Chinese market.
As long as U.S. officials can observe China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation froma comprehensive, dialectical, and long-term perspective, what the world will see would be bilateral ties between two major countries that benefit the world withgenerosity, inclusiveness, and broad vision.
Unfortunately, certain American politicians have only focused on the tensions and problems fortheir economic structure and distribution of interests brought about by globalization and free trade, and been obsessed with ideological differences and ulterior selfish political interests.
Both history and reality have shown that China and the U.S. stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation, and that cooperation is the onlyright choice for both parties.
Close cooperation and economic complementarity between China and the U.S.could boost economic growth, industrial upgrading and structural optimization in both countries, and bring about common opportunities for their respective development.
CertainU.S. politicians had better grasp that economic development is the foundation of a country’s development, and that politics are after all to serve economy.Therefore, when political manipulation hinders or even harms economic development, it wouldinevitably have to be brought back on track.
These politicians in the U.S. should quit their pride and prejudice and abandon their “savior” mindset before it’s too late, so as to return to the right track where they should adopt a correct altitude towards the history, reality and future of China-U.S. relations.
(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy.)
