What Is an Open Door Policy?

The basic content of China's opening-up policy is: adhere to the long-term opening-up policy, and continuously expand and develop economic, trade, and technical exchanges and cooperation with other countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. Under the premise of insisting on independence and self-reliance, and in accordance with the needs of China's socialist modernization drive, we have planned, focused and selectively introduced applicable and advanced technology and equipment from abroad, and hired necessary foreign economic and technical experts to help us work.

Open Policy

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, China's economic construction has made great achievements, but with the development of the situation, the highly centralized planned economic system and closed-door foreign policies have become increasingly unable to meet the needs of China's economic development. Although in the 1950s, China had good political and economic relations with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and it also had certain trade relations and technology introduction with the West, on the whole, China was in a state of isolation from the world, making China's development The gap between the level and the world has widened. Especially since the 1960s, China has made many mistakes in economic construction and diplomacy, such as emphasizing "class struggle as the key link" in economic construction, and including all western developed countries in the "empire" , Repair, and counter ", and fight" irreconcilable "with them, so we are isolated from ourselves; it is during this period that the world economy is booming, science and technology are changing with each passing day, and China has lost great opportunities for development. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party in 1978, China's opening-up policy began to be established. Since then, China has gradually entered the world.

Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out: "Since the second half of 1957, we have made 'Left' mistakes. Generally speaking, it is closed to the outside, and class struggle is the key to the inside. Policy beyond the primary stage of socialism "(Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, Vol. 3, People's Publishing House 1993, p. 269). Here, Comrade Xiaoping summarized the main "Left" mistakes we made at the time as "closed to the outside" and "class struggle internally as the outline", and put "closed to the outside world" as the outline of class struggle internally. ".

The highly centralized planned economic system needs to be reformed, and its closed-door foreign policy needs to be changed, otherwise China's development will be greatly restricted. At that time, China had realized that the opening up of the socialist countries was first of all a need for economic construction and a need to introduce advanced experience, advanced technology, and funds. Otherwise, it will be difficult for socialist countries with relatively backward economic development to develop rapidly, let alone catch up with developed countries. Taking opening up as a basic national policy alongside reform is also an important way and guarantee for building socialism with Chinese characteristics. In this regard, Comrade Deng Xiaoping has clearly stated: "Opening up is of great significance. It is impossible for any country to develop in isolation and remain closed and self-sufficient, without strengthening international exchanges, and without introducing advanced experience, advanced science, technology and funds from developed countries. It is impossible "(Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, Vol. 3, People's Publishing House 1993, p. 117). In June 1980, when Deng Xiaoping received a foreign guest for the first time, he made "opening up" to the public as the country's foreign economic policy. He said: "China implements an open policy at the international level and strengthens international exchanges. It pays special attention to absorbing the experience and technology of developed countries, including absorbing foreign funds to help us develop." At the Fourth Session of the Fifth National People's Congress held in November 1981, The government work report further stated clearly: "It is our unswerving policy to implement the policy of opening up to the outside world and strengthen international economic and technological exchanges." In December 1982, the policy of opening up to the outside world was officially written into our Constitution.

In fact, as early as October 1976 after the smashing of the Gang of Four, China had realized the importance of opening up to the outside world. At that time, many delegations at the national and local levels had gone abroad for inspections. In May 1978, the State Council sent the first economic delegation of New China led by then-premier Gu Mu, an economic delegation to Western Europe. They conducted an inspection in France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland for more than a month. In late June, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held a special meeting to hear the report of the inspection team. In July, the State Council held a retreat on economic construction, fully discussed the issue of foreign economic cooperation, and reached consensus on several important issues: First, after the Second World War, major social and economic developments took place in developed capitalist economies. Changes in science and technology and economic development, capitalism has a lot to learn from; second, although China has achieved great results in socialist construction, it is still relatively backward compared with capitalism, and has developed with developed countries. The gap is not narrowing, but widening. Third, developed capitalist countries also want to conduct economic cooperation with us because of their political and economic considerations. The markets they need to invest in and the markets where products are sold. Fourth, they are developing In foreign economic relations, many internationally popular practices, including compensation trade, cooperative production, and absorption of foreign investment, can be studied and adopted. In September, Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out at a conference that, after several years of hard work, conditions like today are much better than in the past, allowing us to absorb international advanced technology and management experience and absorb their funds. In December, after careful discussion at the Central Working Conference, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party made a major decision to actively develop economic cooperation with countries around the world on the basis of self-reliance and strive to adopt world-leading technology and equipment. As a result, China's basic national policy of opening up was determined, and a new prelude to China's economic development was opened.

(1) Establishment of special economic zones

In April 1979, the central government held a working conference to discuss economic construction issues. At the time, the leader of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee Xi Zhongxun proposed in the report that he hoped that the central government would delegate certain powers and allow Guangdong a certain degree of autonomy to hold export processing industries in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Shantou adjacent to Hong Kong and Macau. After hearing this, Comrade Deng Xiaoping agreed with the proposal and proposed to the central government to approve Guangdong's request. In the course of discussing how to expand foreign trade, many responsible comrades present at the meeting thought that it was possible to develop export special zones in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, and Xiamen, Fujian, to develop the production of export commodities. This proposal was written into the conference. file.

After full discussions and preparations from various quarters, in July, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council approved the submission of two reports on the implementation of special policies and flexible measures for foreign economic activities by the two provinces of Guangdong and Fujian. And Xiamen, Fujian Province, pilot export special zones. Based on the practice of preparing the SAR for more than half a year, the central government has further clarified that in the development of the SAR, not only export processing industry, but also business and tourism, not only to expand export trade, but also to play a multifaceted role in the economic life of the country : Such as the window of technology, the window of management, the window of knowledge and the window of foreign policy, and the "open base". Thus, in March 1980, the "export special zone" was changed to a more special "special economic zone".

As the Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, and Xiamen special zones have made great achievements in a short period of time, the state decided to expand the size and scope of the special economic zones. On April 13, 1988, the first session of the Seventh National People's Congress The meeting considered and passed the motion proposed by the State Council, and decided that Hainan Province would become another special economic zone in China.

(2) Economic and Technological Development Zone

The breakthrough progress and great achievements made by the special economic zones in a short period of time have greatly encouraged the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country and further strengthened our country's confidence in expanding opening up. In February 1984, Comrade Deng Xiaoping inspected the SAR and pointed out: "In addition to the current SAR, we can consider opening up a few more port cities .... These places are not called SARs, but certain policies of the SAR can be implemented."

In April 1984, according to Comrade Deng Xiaoping's suggestion, the Party Central Committee and the State Council studied and decided to expand the scope of opening up from the special zone to some other cities along the coast. There are 14 cities open this time: Dalian, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Yantai, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang and Beihai. In September of that year, the State Council first approved the establishment of an economic and technological development zone in Dalian, a major town in the northeast. From this time to January 1985, in the gradual approval of the implementation plan of the open coastal cities, Qinhuangdao, Yantai, Qingdao, Ningbo, Zhanjiang, Tianjin, Lianyungang, Nantong, Fuzhou, Guangzhou and other cities were organized to hold economic and technological development. And grant them similar preferential policies to the coastal special economic zones. In August 1986, the State Council approved the establishment of Shanghai Minhang Economic and Technological Development Zone and Hongqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone. In 1988, Shanghai also approved the establishment of Caohejing Economic and Technological Development Zone, which focuses on high-tech development. In this way, China's economic and technological development zones have reached 14. By the end of 1991, 14 economic and technological development zones had accumulated an area of 300,000 square kilometers, approved 1,501 foreign investment projects, agreed to absorb 2.72 billion U.S. dollars in foreign investment, and had 821 companies put into operation. The Economic and Technological Development Zone showed its development Vigorous.

In 1992, Comrade Deng Xiaoping's speech during his inspection tour in the south of the country scientifically summarized the basic experience since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held a scientific summary of the theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. Theoretical innovation has promoted the emancipation of people's thinking, and China's opening to the outside world has made great strides. In 1992, the State Council approved the holding of Wenzhou Development Zone, Kunshan Development Zone, Weihai Development Zone, and Fuqing Rongqiao Development Zone. In 1993, the State Council approved Dongshan Development Zone, Wuhan Development Zone, Changchun Development Zone, Harbin Development Zone, Shenyang Development Zone, Hangzhou Development Zone, Wuhu Development Zone, Chongqing Development Zone, Xiaoshan Development Zone, Huizhou Daya Bay Development Zone, Guangzhou Nansha Development Zone; in August 1994, the State Council approved two development zones, Beijing and Urumqi. So far, the State Council has approved a total of 32 economic and technological development zones.

In a short period of time, the Economic and Technological Development Zone has achieved great achievements recognized by the world, which greatly encouraged and strengthened our country's confidence and determination to open to the outside world. Of course, due to various reasons, some localities have also made some deviations and mistakes in their own development zones, and paid a certain price. Many places, regardless of their own conditions and possibilities, have followed suit to emulate economic and technological development zones, which has caused a national "Development Zone Fever." Especially in 1992, many localities blindly established development zones of various names regardless of customer conditions, so that in early 1993, the total number of development zones set up by themselves reached more than 2,000, with a planned area of 14,800 square kilometers. In these development zones, many of them are only open and not developed, which not only causes a large amount of waste of land resources, but also interferes with the normal economic order. In response, the State Council issued the "Notice on Strict Examination and Approval of Various Development Zones" in 1993, and the "Notice on the State Council's Approval of the Report on the Inspection of Fixed Assets Investment" issued in 1994. Perform standardized management.

After cleaning and rectification, by the end of 1995, there were 638 economic and technological development zones of various types approved by the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. Among them, there are 533 economic development zones, 48 high-tech industrial development zones, and 57 tourism development zones. The planned area is 5,100 square kilometers and the starting area is 844 square kilometers. In terms of distribution, provincial development zones in 12 coastal provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities (including Beijing) account for about 55% of the total. From the perspective of development, according to incomplete statistics, provincial development zones across the country have approved domestic-funded projects. 430,000, with a total investment of 220 billion yuan; more than 9,000 foreign direct investment projects, more than 33 billion US dollars of contracted foreign investment, and more than 8 billion US dollars of actual foreign investment.

In the nearly 17 years since the establishment of the Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone by the State Council, under the guidance of a series of national policies and the hard work of the builders of the Economic and Technological Development Zone, China's Economic and Technological Development Zone adheres to the principle of industry The "three-oriented" policy of developing and export-oriented, committed to the development of high-tech industries, has made great achievements, and they have basically become new growth points, technological and management innovation points for the economic development of the cities where they are located. . Therefore, like the special economic zones, the Economic and Technological Development Zone is also a "test field" and a "pioneer" in China from a traditional planned economic system to a market economic system and from closed to self-defence to opening to the outside world. Development and expansion in the competition of foreign markets.

(3) Development of Pudong

As the construction of special economic zones and economic and technological development zones is in full swing, the opening of Shanghai with its unique position has also been mentioned on the agenda. In fact, the idea of developing Pudong and opening Shanghai has been brewing for a long time. Around 1980, many people of insight in Shanghai and Beijing put forward various ideas for developing Pudong. Since then, several leaders of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government have repeatedly studied the policy principles of Pudong Development and organized experts to conduct detailed inspections and demonstrations. In 1984, the Shanghai People's Government formally raised the issue of developing Pudong for the first time in the report of the "Outline of Shanghai Economic Development Strategy Report" reported to the State Council. The State Council's reply in February 1985 clearly stated that it was necessary to create conditions to develop Pudong and plan the construction of a new urban area. In October 1986, the State Council approved in the "Shanghai Urban Master Plan": "At present, special attention should be paid to the planned construction and transformation of the Pudong New Area to make Pudong a modern new area." In order to implement the State Council's two instructions, In July 1987, the Shanghai Municipal People's Government established the Advisory Group for the Development of Pudong. On February 26, 1990, the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government formally submitted the "Request for Development and Opening of Pudong" to the Party Central Committee and the State Council. In March of the same year, when Comrade Deng Xiaoping talked with several responsible comrades in the central government, he pointed out that the key to China is to see whether we can strive for a faster growth rate and realize our development strategy, and put forward the strategic concept of "grasp Shanghai": "Shanghai is our "The trump card is a shortcut for Shanghai." From the end of March to early April, Comrade Yao Yilin, then Deputy Prime Minister of the State Council, was entrusted by the Party Central Committee and the State Council to lead responsible comrades from relevant departments to Shanghai to carry out the development of Pudong. Special investigations. From April 15th to 18th, then Premier Li Peng of the State Council visited Shanghai and officially announced the development and opening of Pudong on the 18th. In June 1990, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Reply on the Development and Opening of Pudong", which stated in the reply that "Developing and opening Pudong is a major deployment to deepen reforms and further implement opening up ...." Major issues concerning the overall situation must be handled properly. " In October 1992, Comrade Jiang Zemin, then General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, proposed at the 14th National People's Congress of the Communist Party that Shanghai Pudong should be developed and opened up as a leader to further open the cities along the Yangtze River and build Shanghai into an international economy, It is one of the financial and trade centers to drive a new leap in the Yangtze River Delta and the entire Yangtze River Basin. All these fully reflect the ardent hope of the Party Central Committee and the State Council for the development and opening of Pudong.

The development and opening up of Pudong has greatly promoted the economic development of Pudong and Shanghai. At present, Shanghai has become a relatively well-known international financial center in the world, which has led to the development of Shanghai and the entire Yangtze River basin.

(4) Opening of the Mainland

With the continuous deepening of reform and opening up and the great achievements brought by the opening up, the Party Central Committee and the State Council decided to further expand opening up. First, since 1990, it has been established in Waigaoqiao, Shanghai Pudong New Area, and Tianjin Port. 15 bonded areas. The bonded area is a new thing that emerged in the course of China's reform and development. It is an economic open area formed on the basis of China's reference to the practice of free trade zones in the world and the combination of China's national conditions. Within this region, goods imported from abroad are considered overseas in terms of their tariffs and other tariffs, are exempt from customs supervision, and are given special tariffs and preferential policies in the region. The fundamental purpose of China's construction and development of bonded areas is to form a good investment environment and to use the unique conditions of customs bonded areas in the bonded areas to develop the foreign economy. By 1996, China has established 15 bonded areas, which are the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone in Shanghai Pudong New Area, Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone, Shenzhen Shatou Free Trade Zone, Shenzhen Futian Free Trade Zone, Dalian Free Trade Zone, Guangzhou Free Trade Zone, Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone, Haikou Free Trade Zone, Xiamen Xiangyu Free Trade Zone, Fuzhou Free Trade Zone, Ningbo Free Trade Zone, Qingdao Free Trade Zone, Shantou Free Trade Zone, Shenzhen Yantian Port Free Trade Zone, Zhuhai Free Trade Zone, etc. Second, six cities including Wuhu and Jiujiang, which opened the Yangtze River, and the establishment of the Yangtze River Three Gorges Economic Open Zone. The third is to open 13 land border cities including Hunchun. The fourth is to open all inland provincial capitals and capital cities of autonomous regions and give them the same preferential policies as economic and technological development zones. In this way, a multi-level, multi-channel, and all-round opening-up situation along the coast, along the river, along the border, and from east to west, south, and north has been formed in our country, and China's opening up has entered a new and higher stage. So far, China's opening to the outside world has formed a multi-level, focused, and point-to-point opening-up pattern of "Special Economic Zones-Coastal Port Cities-Economic and Technological Development Zones-Coastal Economic Open Zones-and to the Mainland".

(5) Fully open to the outside world

After difficult negotiations, China's entry into the World Trade Organization in late 2001 marked a new stage in China's opening up. China will transform from openness in a limited scope and limited area to full-scale openness; from policy-oriented opening that is characterized by pilots, to foreseeable opening up under the legal framework; Transformed into openness with WTO members. The main characteristics of China's opening to the outside world during this period were:

First, from the all-round opening of the region to the all-round opening of the industry. Since the beginning of the mid-1990s, China's opening up has not only been through the opening of coastal cities and open areas, but has also formed a comprehensive opening situation in the east, west, south, and north, which has greatly improved the degree and scope of China's economic openness. What's more important is that we must actively make preparations to move from regional all-round opening to the full opening of industries. Generally, competitive industries will implement full opening to allow foreign goods and capital to enter under certain conditions. This is not only the requirement of China's entry into the WTO, but also the internal requirement of China's open economy development, and competition will become increasingly fierce.

Second, the degree of internationalization of production and capital will further increase. In the context of the increasingly obvious trend of world economic integration, not only will China's market develop in a fully open direction, allowing international capital and commodities to enter the Chinese market to a greater extent, but also China's capital will increase at a faster rate. Entering the international market, China will have more enterprises engaged in transnational production and management. "Bringing in" and "Going out" will become the two wheels of China's opening to the outside world, which will effectively promote China's opening up to the outside world. After 20 years of reform and opening up, Chinese overseas companies have developed rapidly, and now Chinese companies can be seen in almost every country in the world. However, the vast majority of Chinese enterprises overseas are currently trade-oriented enterprises, which are branches of domestic trading companies or sales agents of manufacturing enterprises. There are only a few companies with truly multinational production and management nature, and there are not many large-scale enterprises. With the continuous development of China's economy and the strengthening of the connection with the outside world, Chinese companies now increasingly have the need for transnational development, and the continuous surplus of China's current account since the mid-1990s has also been for Chinese companies. It provides financial guarantee for transnational production and operation. Although there are very few Chinese multinational companies in the true sense, in the new stage of the further development of China's open economy in the 21st century, the development of Chinese multinational companies will inevitably have a larger development as more foreign capital enters China. The degree of internationalization of Chinese enterprises' production and capital is bound to further increase.

Third, China's financial market will no longer be separated from the international financial market, and the degree of integration between the financial market and the world market will increase significantly. More than 20 years of reform and opening up have given China the characteristics of an open economy, and the degree of openness and internationalization of commodity markets has reached a high level. However, China's financial industry and financial market have remained relatively closed so far, and it has considerable isolation from the increasingly integrated world financial market. As the key sector and core link of the national economy, the financial industry and financial market are usually ranked in a later stage in the process of opening up to the outside world, and this is also true in the course of the developed countries' open economy. The opening of financial markets in most developed countries began after World War II, and the full opening of the financial industry only emerged after the financial liberalization of the West was generally implemented in the 1980s.Therefore, a fully open and highly internationalized financial market can Seen as a developed form of an open economy. The construction of China's open economy is still in a period of transition from the primary stage to the advanced stage. It is understandable that the financial market is not highly open. However, the opening of financial markets and the financial industry is, after all, an objective development trend and an important manifestation of economic globalization and world economic integration. According to China's entry into the WTO agreement, China's financial industry is increasingly open to the outside world, but the overall competitiveness of China's financial industry is not strong, and financial security deserves high attention.

Fourth, China's rules and regulations will be further standardized and in line with international standards, and the government's macro-control measures will undergo major changes. Since the reform and opening up, the construction of China's market economic system has been developed together with opening up, and both have achieved great success. However, it should be noted that the superstructure of the market, the various management methods, rules and regulations that regulate the market, have not yet been restructured and reorganized in accordance with the requirements of an open market economy. In this case, the law that the superstructure adapts to the economic foundation is lagging, and it is also related to the characteristics of China's gradual reform. When establishing a new market economic system, China must maximize the role of the market in promoting economic development, and at the same time try to avoid the shocks and shocks brought by the system transformation, so as to minimize the cost of economic growth. In this way, many phenomena and superstructures with Chinese characteristics have formed in the process of building a market economy system in China. Although we cannot say that the existing macroeconomic management mechanisms, methods and rules and regulations are still unreasonable, after China's entry into the WTO, these rules and regulations and the government's macro-control must follow the rules of the WTO. This requires that We have made major changes to the WTO rules and the commitments we made in the negotiations to bring them into line with international practice. The above directions for China's further opening up are not only the needs of China's own economic development, but also the objective requirements imposed on China by the trend of economic globalization.

Opening up to the outside world is a major strategic decision made by China after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CPC to adhere to the ideological line of seeking truth from facts, based on the basic principles of Marxist development of international economic relations, and summing up international and domestic historical experience. Looking back on China's opening to the outside world for 20 years, China's opening to the outside world has the following characteristics:

First, China's opening to the outside world is a gradual opening. China's opening-up is based on the continuous summary of experience, from point to surface, from shallow to deep, with special emphasis on special economic zones and coastal open cities, and gradually promoted to the central and western inland areas, not only to ensure the irreversible opening to the outside world, It also avoids the huge impact of blind opening on the industry.

Second, China's opening up to the outside world is independent, independent, and mutually beneficial. China's opening to the outside world emphasizes independence, self-reliance, equality and mutual benefit. Under this premise, we will make full use of the two resources of the international and domestic markets and actively develop economic and trade exchanges with other countries. At the same time, in the process of opening to the outside world, we have resolutely maintained national sovereignty, dignity, and security.

Third, China's opening up to the outside world is based on economic opening up. China's opening up first began in the economic field, and in the future it will also be based on and focused on economic opening up. It also includes actively developing exchanges and cooperation with other countries in science, technology, culture, and education.

Fourth, China's opening to the outside world is open to all countries and regions in the world. No matter which country is of any nature and type, or whether it is a poor or a rich country, China is willing to develop economic and trade relations with them on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. ^[1]