Thirdly，we should conform to the international tre...
Never has the world seen the global economy so tightly interwoven and so deeply inter-dependent.Almost no country or region today could cut itself off from international trade，investment，or the international division of labor while maintaining its economic development and improving people ’s livelihood.For a long time after the founding of the new republic，we stayed more or less outside the international economic system，but it was primarily a result of the blockage policy imposed upon us by the western powers led by the United States.Despite that，we still managed to get connected to the outside world by interacting with other socialist countries and by making sporadic contacts with some developed countries whenever possible.
In our process of initial industrialization，we made efforts to win support，financially，technologically and otherwise，from the Soviet Union.While making appreciable achievements，we now know that the industrialization carried out under the planned economic system was still a highly introverted pattern of development，unable to benefit from the fast economic and technology progress of the time.In terms of trade，its share in China ’s GDP in the late 1970s was even lower than that in 1952，whereas foreign investment was almost non-existent.A consequence of all this is that China lost the historic opportunity of international industrial relocation that occurred from the 1950s to the 1970s.
With reform and opening-up kicked off in 1978，China took on a new pattern of development，not only opening its door to other economies，but using the openness to force up the reform on the home front.We started this，first of all，in the costal regions adjacent to Hong Kong，Macao，and Taiwan by attracting the investment in industrial processing.Then，we set up Special Economic Zones followed by the broader opening-up of all the coastal cities.In 1986，China made its application for recovering its status as a founding member of the GATT，which led to its final accession to the WTO in 2001.Such an orderly and incremental expansion of openness helped China overcome the “double gaps” of savings strain and foreign exchange shortage that H.B.Chenery proposed to explain the inability of underdeveloped economies to take off.Over the past four decades，China witnessed spectacular growth of its foreign trade and investment，with the FDI in stock now exceeding two trillion USD.Such external economic links have not only solved the long-running problem of foreign exchange shortage and capital shortage，but also provided employment for tens of millions of workers，stirred up domestic consumption，imported advanced technology and management expertise，and exposed the Chinese to international norms and rules.So，China is an active participant in，beneficiary of，and contributor to，economic globalization.At this moment，China has built up a structure of openness，comprehensive in scope，multiple in tiers，and diverse in fields.We are now committed to benchmarking with the highest level of standards and excellence of openness，so that China will integrate itself more deeply into the global economy，take a great role in international economic cooperation and competition，all for the purpose of facilitating stable，healthy and sustainable development of the Chinese and world economy.