As China celebrates the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up, a historic era of economic dynamism and social development, I am about to celebrate the 30th anniversary of my first coming to China in January 1989.

My invitation had come from Dr. Song Jian, state councilor and chairman of the State Science and Technology Commission, who asked a few American investment bankers, science literate, to advise Chinese research institutes in their first, fledgling efforts to adapt to the market economy.

I was hooked from the moment I arrived. The Chinese had a fresh, if naïve, enthusiasm; they were eager to learn, and ready to improve their civic and material lives.

I realized then that China's economics, politics, society and culture would soon come to matter a great deal to the world. What I did not realize then was how much China would come to matter to me.

What an amazing transformation it has been! Once a backward economy and a closed society, China is now the world's second-largest economy, engaged openly with every country on earth, and involved in every matter of global importance: economics, business, science, technology, education, healthcare, environment, culture, diplomacy, defense, global infrastructure construction, battles against poverty at home and abroad. 

China's transformation is unprecedented in world history and for three decades I am privileged to have borne witness.

As President Xi Jinping addressed the grand commemoration of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up in the Great Hall of the People, the occasion was both an appreciative pause to reflect on all that China had accomplished and a propitious time to address all that China still needs to accomplish.

In this new era of China's reform and opening up, in this transitional time of China's enhanced engagement with the world, my receiving this Medal evinces how seriously China takes international communications. 

I am privileged to receive the China Reform Friendship Medal. The Medal reflects those who have helped China, in diverse areas and ways, throughout this historic four-decade transformation, when China's per capita disposable income increased about 23 times, and roughly 740 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty.

I believe when historians of the future write the chronicles of our times, a highlight is sure to be China's remarkable 40 years of reform and opening up.