August 22 this year marks the 120th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping's birth. Commemorative activities are held nationwide, including the issuance of commemorative stamps and the hosting of seminars on Deng Xiaoping Theory to honor the contributions of a leader who played a pivotal role in China's reform and opening up.

Born in 1904, Deng initiated China's remarkable journey toward modernization. Today, as China advances its process of Chinese modernization, Deng's theory of reform and opening up continues to serve as a crucial guiding force.

In September 1978, Deng embarked on an eight-day inspection tour of northern China. He inspected Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Hebei, and Tianjin and delivered a series of pivotal speeches, now known as the "Northern Talks."

In these talks, Deng emphasized the importance of freeing the mind, shifting the Party's focus to economic construction, introducing advanced international technologies, and managing the economy with modern methods. He also underscored the need to develop productive forces to improve people's living conditions.

The "Northern Talks" provided a clear direction for China's economic and social development and laid the groundwork for subsequent major decisions that would transform China.

In December 1978, the third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was convened, marking a historic turning point in the nation's trajectory. The meeting officially shifted the Party's and the country's focus to economic development and adopted the national policy of reform and opening up.

Over the past more than 40 years of reform and opening up, China's GDP has grown from 367.9 billion yuan (about $51.6 billion) in 1978 to an astonishing 126.06 trillion yuan in 2023 (about $17.7 trillion). From 1978 to 2018, China's GDP experienced an average nominal growth rate of 14.5 percent per year. The nation's GDP surpassed Japan's in 2010, becoming the world's second-largest economy.

According to World Bank data, global economic growth since 1979 has averaged about 2.91 percent annually, with China's rapid expansion playing a significant role in driving global growth. Alongside this economic surge, China's urbanization rate soared from 18 percent in 1978 to 63 percent in 2022.

One of the most profound impacts of this economic growth has been the dramatic reduction in poverty. According to the World Bank's international poverty line of $1.90 per person per day, China has lifted nearly 800 million people out of poverty since the country's reform and opening up in 1978, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global reduction in poverty during the same period.

On July 1, 2021, during the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, China announced that it had successfully eradicated extreme poverty by 2020 and had built a moderately prosperous society in all respects – an important milestone on the path to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

China's economic ascent has been closely linked to its integration into the global economy. Deng attached great importance to opening up. In October 1978, he visited Japan and key Japanese enterprises. In early 1979, Deng made a historic visit to the United States, just 28 days after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two nations.

His visits symbolized China's determination to open up to the world and actively integrate into the global economic system.

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee concluded last month, during which a resolution was adopted on further comprehensively deepening reform to advance Chinese modernization. 

The resolution listed over 300 measures to deepen China's economic system reforms, including enhancing innovation capabilities and narrowing the urban-rural divide, further laying a solid foundation for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.