No stopping reform or closing the door: China Daily editorial

What China has achieved in the past four decades has vindicated the decision to initiate reform and opening-up. At the time, reform and opening-up were focused on how Chinese people's minds could be emancipated to embrace the notion of a market economy. Today, the domestic and international situations are very different from what they were 40 years ago, but the pursuit of further reform and opening-up still requires courage and resolve.

Domestically, what is urgently needed is not just to give people the green light to do whatever they were not allowed to do before, as was the practice in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Instead, governments at all levels need to have a clear mind that reforms must promote a healthy business environment and build a strong domestic market.

They will have to bear these aims continually in mind, since the more specific a policy is the more difficult it will be to implement, as it will likely infringe upon some vested interests that have been formed over the past four decades. Oftentimes, local governments will have to give up their own vested interests or rack their brains to balance different interest groups.

And there is much that needs to be done. Not least promoting and coordinating regional development and pushing forward the rejuvenation strategy for rural areas, as well as speeding up reform of the economic system and pushing forward all-around opening-up.

For an important lesson China has learned over the past 40 years is the two must go hand-in-hand. By opening its door, China has succeeded in transforming a closed economy into one that embraces and benefits the world.

But that has also brought China new challenges and obstacles. Not least, because it has now moved nearer center stage in the international arena. As the world's second-largest economy whatever it does now has a bearing not only on itself but also on others. And its championing of multilateralism and fair trade has put it at odds with the rising trend of unilateralism and trade protectionism.

Whatever the circumstances, China will defend its national security and protect its own interests from being infringed upon. At the same time, it will use diplomacy to forge strong bonds with the rest of the world and resolve disputes.

The importance of opening up to the outside world can never be overestimated. That explains why President Xi Jinping has proposed to build a community with a shared future for mankind, in which win-win cooperation is promoted for the building of a better world. And that's why he remains confident that China will continue to comprehensively deepen reform and expand opening-up.