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

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.