Reflections on 40 years of Chinese reforms

ON Dec 18, 1978, the Communist Party of China (CPC) approved paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's historic plans for reform and opening up of China. It was an experiment unprecedented in human history. It ended the planned economy of the country but maintained the primacy of the CPC. It effectively started a market-oriented reform. Deng opened up China's domestic market to foreign investment, thus unleashing an unstoppable economic force which ended decades of stagnation. It saved China from the tumultuous impact of the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward.

As President Xi Jinping aptly noted during the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, in 1978, there were "grain coupons, cloth coupons, meat coupons, fish coupons, tofu coupons, food ticket books, product coupons and other documents people could not be without". Fortunately, these "have been consigned to the museum of history".

At that time, as a foreigner, one could not use RMB - we had to use Foreign Exchange Certificates which were necessary to shop in special "Friendship Stores" to buy goods that were not available to an average Chinese, and pay for upper-end hotels in select big cities where foreigners could stay.