ABSTRACT
Since 1978, when the practice of reform and opening up was rst proposed in the Thirteenth Plenary Session, Chinese society has undergone earth-shaking changes in just 30 years. In 1978, China’s total import and export volume was only US$ 20.64 billion, foreign exchange reserves only US$ 167 million; it was ranked 32 in the world, as it was mainly doing business with Soviet Union. In 1978 the Chinese government started to reform from a planned economic system to a market economic system, advocating the development of export-oriented economy by taking advantage of Chinese labor; ever since then China started to open itself to the world. In the early years of the reform and opening up, 1978 to 1989, China’s foreign trade volume was relatively small and the growth was relatively slow, only US$ 91.04 billion in the rst ten years. From 1990 to 1999, China’s trading activity had been growing rapidly, with trade volume rising from US$ 115.44 billion to US$ 360.6 billion, which grew 2.6 times compared to the growth rate from 1978 to 1989. After joining the WTO in 2001, China’s foreign trade volume has grown signi cantly. In the year 2001, China’s foreign trade volume was US$ 509.6 billion; it grew to US$ 2.1738 trillion in 2007, increasing by US$ 1,664,150,000,000. After that, a ected by the United States subprime crisis in 2008 and the nancial crisis, China’s trade volume declined slightly in 2009, but after a brief recovery in 2010 it returned to rapid growth. In 2012, the total import and export trade has reached US$ 3,866.12 billion, with total imports and exports US$ 1,818.4 billion and US$ 2,048.7 billion; total trade increased by 186 times, total imports increased by nearly 166 times and total exports grew by 209 times compared to 1978 (see Figure 14.1). At the same time, China’s utilization of foreign investment increased year by year. In 1983, China’s actual use of foreign investment was only US$ 2 billion, and in 1990, it rose to US$ 10.289 billion. A further rise occurred in 2000 to US$ 59.3 billion
and US$ 113.2 billion in 2012 (see Figure 14.2). Since China’s open policy and reforms beginning in 1978, China has taken an active part in international specialization utilizing the advantage of its low-cost labor. The pattern of omni-directional, multi-level and wide-ranging opening up has been improving continuously. With the further development of globalization, Chinese economy
the degree of industrialization and urbanization are rising gradually from the level of a backward country to that of middle income countries.
