As China celebrated the 40th anniversary of its reform and opening-up policy on Tuesday (December 18), the achievements it has made over the last four decades were hailed as a miracle.
Experts said that China's reform and opening-up not only is a milestone in the country's history but also holds global significance.
RIGHT PATH: Addressing a grand gathering Tuesday to celebrate the 40th anniversary, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the past 40 years eloquently prove the correctness of the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a leading American expert on China who was honoured with China Reform Friendship Medal on Tuesday, said China's direction is clear, that is, socialism with Chinese characteristics, the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in all areas, putting people and their well-being and happiness first, and the need to further implement and deepen reforms.
Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said the reform and opening-up policy enacted by the CPC at the third plenary session of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978 planned China's development and raised China to heights unimaginable at that time.
"All the achievements that China has made are inseparable from the country's adherence to the leadership of the CPC and taking the socialist path," he told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Manoranjan Mohanty, former chairperson of the Institute of Chinese Studies in Delhi, said the reform and opening-up was a great revolution.
At one time it was called a "New Long March," which has two things in common with the Long March of the Red Army - one is the determination to unite maximum popular forces and the other is to innovate a strategy of revolution, he said.
QUANTUM LEAP: Describing the reform and opening-up as "a great revolution in the history of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation," Xi said a quantum leap has been made in the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's business networking organization 48 Group Club, said China has undergone incredible transformation since its reform and opening-up in 1978 and the country is sure to achieve its long-term target.
Perry, also recipient of the China Reform Friendship Medal, said that he had seen China turning from a backward country where most of the population lived in countryside into a country where nearly 60 per cent of the population now dwell in towns and cities.
During the period, China's grain output has doubled to over 600 million tons and modern technology is being developed in various industries, Perry noted.
William Jones, Washington bureau chief of the US publication Executive Intelligence Review, told Xinhua in an interview that the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening-up is extremely important and is a pivotal moment.
China has moved from a relatively impoverished country to one of the most important economic powers in the world today, Jones said. What is done has shown that the policy that was laid out in terms of the reform and opening-up has been a resounding success, he added.
China's reform and opening-up over the past 40 years has proven to be the "golden key" to reviving its society, said Jin Jianmin, a senior fellow at the Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo, believing that the ongoing process will never stop.
Shadrack Gutto, a political analyst at the University of South Africa, recalled that when talking about China 40 years ago, people would think of the "kingdom of bicycle."
But now automobiles made by China have been exported to the world market, said Gutto, adding that both in material and spiritual terms, Chinese people's standard of living has been significantly improved.
PROPELLING GLOBAL PROSPERITY: The 40 years of reform and opening-up has benefited both China and the world, said Jin, emphasising that the great demand created by China's rapid economic growth has offered opportunities to the international community.
Farooq Sobhan, president of Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, said the China International Development Cooperation Agency, along with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Silk Road Fund, represents the country's "firm commitment to promote and support economic growth, both globally and regionally."
These institutions will "benefit Bangladesh and other developing countries to meet their growing development and infrastructure requirements," said Sobhan.
Appreciating the China-proposed concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, Mohanty believed that "people all over the world wish the people of China even greater successes in pursuing the path of equitable and sustainable development."
Editor: Yang Yi. Xinhua reporters Hu Xiaoguang, Zhang Jianhua, Zhao Xu, Wang Huihui, Jin Jing, Gui Tao, Zhu Dongyang, Hu Yousong, Liu Chen, Jiang Qiaomei, Yang Ting, Jing Jing, Liu Chuntao, Yang Shilong contributed to the story