Prez Xi to world: Don’t dictate to China

Beijing, December 18 

China will not heed to any dictation by others on what it should do or what it should not, President Xi Jinping asserted on Tuesday as the Communist giant celebrated the 40th anniversary of its reform and opening-up policies that have transformed it from an impoverished country into a global economic powerhouse.

But Xi’s speech lasting over 80 minutes did not offer any indication of relaxation of the ruling Communist Party’s firm grip on political power or concrete policies to tackle China’s complex economic problems like slower growth and an ongoing trade war with the United States.

President Donald Trump has demanded further reforms to the Chinese economy, including greater access for US companies and a clampdown on intellectual property theft. Xi’s speech comes during a 90-day truce between Washington and Beijing while the two sides try to reach a compromise.

At a grand ceremony held in Beijing’s imposing Great Hall of the People, Xi praised the Chinese people’s “hard work, wisdom and courage” and listed its achievements since late leader Deng Xiaoping launched the era of “Reform and Opening” in 1978.

China’s economy will produce “miracles that will impress the world” in the coming years, the 65-year-old top leader said while noting that there is no textbook of golden rules to follow for reform and development in China, a country with over 5,000 years of civilisation and more than 1.3 billion people.

“No one is in a position to dictate to the Chinese people what should or should not be done,” he asserted amidst growing pressure from the Trump administration on Beijing on several fronts, including on trade and the Chinese military flexing its muscles in the strategic Indo-Pacific region. “(We must) oppose the practices of imposing one’s will upon others, interfering in others’ internal affairs or the strong bullying the weak,” he said.

The reform and opening-up is a great revolution in the history of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation, he said. “It is the great revolution that propelled a quantum leap forward in the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” Xi, also General Secretary of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, said.

Xi is widely seen as China’s most influential leader since Mao. In 2017, he cemented his power, enshrining his political views in the Constitution. Xi described the reforms pioneered by Deng and the ruling party as a “break from the shackles” of previous mistakes.  — PTI 

It all began in 1978

• China’s economic reform was initiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 and the programme was ratified on December 18 that year
• The reform path turned the country away from the old style communism of ‘Chairman’ Mao Zedong when collectivisation had led to an impoverished and inefficient economy
• The transformation focussed on agricultural reform, private sector liberalisation, industry modernisation and opening to international trade
• Today, China holds about 10 per cent of global wealth. China now has 600 billionaires, a higher number than anywhere else in the world