Visions for the future: China's choice to open up

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On Tuesday morning, President Xi Jinping said that reform and opening-up is China’s second revolution. The international context is vastly different from 40 years ago. But the rationale is the same. How so? I took to the exhibition hall in Boao to have a look.

There, I saw the picture of the moment of Hainan becoming a province in 1988. Back then, families were rationed food and the island didn't have a highway.

Last year, Hainan was connected with a bullet train that runs around the island. Over the past four decades, China has managed to lift more than 700 million people out of poverty... And the per capita GDP of Hainan has jumped from 49 US dollars a year to 7,000 US dollars a year.

The story of Hainan encapsulates China’s success. And the story will continue with further liberalization, leading to an open island economy.

To open up or close off? To move forward or to go back? These are the choices all nations have to make. And China’s answer is unequivocal... further reform and opening up.

This is no surprise... what may surprise us is whether China has the ears of others, especially those who are turning inward and to themselves. Throughout the history of modernization, this is another big debate about direction, and direction will decide the destinies of all economies.