Analysts hail Xi’s speech on reform, opening-up

President Xi Jinping’s speech on Tuesday marking the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and openingup was a nod to decades of incredible achievements while offering policy continuity in the pursuit of further reform, experts said.

“The practice of reform and opening-up over the past 40 years has shown that openness brings progress, while seclusion leads to backwardness,” Xi said, while pledging to support the building of an open, transparent, inclusive and nondiscriminatory multilateral trading system.

Jon Taylor, a US professor of political science at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, said Xi underscored the critical role that the Communist Party of China has played and continues to play in fostering China’s development.

“I am particularly encouraged by the fact that Xi’s speech sent a strong message of continuity,” Taylor said, adding that the message that the Party’s success is due to its ability to adapt and change will resonate well beyond this speech. He said it also will provide a reminder that China’s model of development remains a viable alternative to Western development models.

Gene M. Burke, vice-president and general counsel at J&C International Group, said Xi’s speech was very effective in showing how the Chinese people and the ruling political party worked together to bring China into the modern age.

“Overall, President Xi’s speech captured exactly what so many Americans think of China. We share the pride and amazement at the huge strides and accomplishments that China has made in a mere 40 years,” he said. Burke added that it set a good tone for future growth and for continued good relations between China and the United States.

Chris Rowley, a professor at Kellogg College, University of Oxford, in Britain, said Xi’s speech can be interpreted as the continuation of a long line of grand proclamations in recent years concerning China’s economic development, including its well-known achievements in sectors including poverty alleviation, healthcare and social security, and the country’s role in world affairs and globalization in the fight against protectionism.

J. Stapleton Roy, US ambassador to China from 1991 to 1995, said China’s progress in the past 40 years, especially in the modernization of the country, has been “breathtaking”.

“More than 100 million Chinese leave the country every year and come back. … All of these things did not exist during the 1970s and the early part of the 1980s,” he said.

“China was changing in a very important way. But we make a mistake when we try to assume that there is a quick jump from here to there,” Roy added.

Klaus Ebermann, a German diplomat and former European Union ambassador to China, said the past 40 years has been a time of tremendous development. “China has always impressed me by having a long-term view and perspective. A lot has been achieved, and China is on track. This 40 years of development is an indication of the decades to come,” he said.

“I think the relationship (between China and Europe) is a solid one. A solid bridge has been built over these 40 years. ChinaEU trade is doing extremely well despite all the talk in the media. The real world between China and the European Union and European countries has been stabilized by exchanges in trade, in business, in science and technology, in peopleto-people exchanges.”

Cavince Adhere, a Kenya-based scholar of China-Africa relations, said there is no doubt that China has emerged as a major development partner for Africa. Contrary to the recently launched US-Africa policy, President Xi struck a more collaborative and persuasive tone in its international engagements, Adhere said.

“China offers many lessons for Africa’s development agenda. Beijing’s legendary poverty reduction and social safety net, which have seen China lift more than 740 million people out of extreme poverty, are enviable examples that Africa should emulate,” he said.

Liu Yinmeng in Los Angeles, Chen Weihua in Brussels, Angus McNeice in London and Tang Ying in Nairobi contributed to this story. Contact the writers at huanxinzhao@chinadailyusa.com