Celebrations aside, China needs to deal with new opportunities, challenges

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Editor's note: Victor Gao is the former interpreter for Deng Xiaoping and the chairman of China Energy Security Institute. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

China is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its reform and opening-up policy, which has transformed China beyond recognition and turned it into the ever-important second-largest economy in the world.

While the forty years of reform and opening-up are continuous, consistent and integral, it does involve four generations of Chinese leadership, from Deng Xiaoping in the second generation to the incumbent President Xi Jinping in the fifth generation.

Attendees of the event celebrating the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, December 18, 2018. /VCG Photo

China's reform and opening-up has been a constant struggle for experiments and breakthroughs, with no prior roadmap or expertise to draw upon. Every day requires new wisdom, courage, innovation, and new solutions. The rapid changes in China and in the world have combined strength to force China to refuse to be complacent and to constantly innovate and seek breakthroughs.

Facing unique opportunities and challenges, each generation of leadership in China over the past forty years needed to improvise and innovate and deliver results while keeping steady in the overall direction of reform and opening-up to the outside world.

The domestic situation and the international situation facing today's leadership in China are very different compared with the previous several generations of Chinese leadership. China's size and weight are much bigger than before, and China has undoubtedly become a major topic on everyone's mind in the world.

While many countries are happy to see China as it is and congratulate China for the good it has been doing in many parts of the world, there are certain developed countries, including the U.S., which worry if a continuously expanding China will inevitably eclipse their best time in the limelight.

The event celebrating the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, December 18, 2018. /VCG Photo

In recent years, protectionism and anti-globalization are raising their dangerous heads and a certain country seems to be eager to form an anti-China united front to contain China's continued rise on the global stage.

This requires President Xi Jinping and his generation of Chinese leaders to come up with great wisdom, courage, vision, and capabilities to continue to promote steady and high-quality growth at home and deal effectively with multiple challenges at home and abroad.

In China, we classify the current stage as Xi Jinping New Era of socialism with Chinese characteristics. While "socialism with Chinese characteristics" remains part and parcel with what Deng Xiaoping advocated forty years ago, we need new solutions for the new opportunities and challenges we face today in the new era.

A special exhibition marking the 40th anniversary of the China's reform and opening-up policy in Beijing's National Museum of China, December 18, 2018. /VCG Photo

President Xi Jinping has championed the Belt and Road Initiative, the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank, and building a shared future of mankind.

He has also launched a fierce fight against corruption, committed to completely eliminating poverty in China by 2020, and building China into a prosperous and developed country. All these major initiatives would require new innovation and wisdom and vision, not only for China itself but for the world at large.

One crucial challenge for China is how to deal with the trade frictions between China and the U.S. and how to avoid and prevent a Cold War between China and the U.S.

A special exhibition marking the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up policy in Beijing's National Museum of China, December 18, 2018. /VCG Photo

President Xi Jinping has taken a very prudent and cautious approach in dealing with many agitations and provocations by the U.S. government, holding firm to the belief that China and the U.S. should be friends rather than rivals or enemies against each other, and conflict and confrontation between China and the U.S. will be mutually destructive and will damage world peace and development.

From the Chinese perspective, China's rise and development should strengthen world peace and development, and China should be a friend with all and an enemy with none. We want to make sure that the shared future of mankind will be a future of peace and development, rather than a future of war and destruction.

When we celebrate the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up, when we recall the wisdom and courage and vision of Deng Xiaoping, when we celebrate the great achievements of the Chinese people over the past forty years, when we express our thanks and gratitude to all the international friends and partners who have helped in making China a better country, we as a nation will rally behind President Xi and recommit ourselves to greater reform and greater opening-up to the world.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, contact us at opinions@cgtn.com)