Reflections on China’s Reform and Opening-up – 35 Years on

Of course, it cannot be ignored that, like many other countries, China is plagued by a widening wealth gap. However, unlike some Western countries in the same situation, China continuously searches for new ideas and practices to alleviate this problem, aiming to build a society that is as harmonious as possible.

Reports of Western media on the human rights situation in China are often one-sided, manipulated in a way that present the country in a negative light. Of course, there are many aspects to this topic that could be criticized. However, to portray the situation as that of a state that permanently disregards the civil rights and liberties of its citizens is not only misleading and undeserved, but also an insult to the People’s Republic.

At the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair I took part in many stimulating and instructive panel discussions. I learned a lot about the publishing landscape of China, and that contemporary Chinese publications don’t shy away from social criticism. However, the German public didn’t seem to pay much attention to this; German newspapers, for example, didn’t write about it at all.

I get the impression that our journalists often try to keep things simple by adopting each others’ preconceived opinions about China and presenting them as the ultimate truth instead of undertaking independent research on China’s present reality.

“Better to see something once with your own eyes than hear about it one hundred times,” people say in China. I fully agree with this proverb and strongly advise anyone who wants to report about China to travel to the country themselves and observe with their own eyes what China is really like.

A Chinese friend of mine, who now runs a business in Freiburg, Germany, once told me, in view of the media campaign in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games, “I just can’t accept that China is seen as such a dark country in the Western world. I love China and I’m happy living here.”

Those outside observers who demand that a historically strictly managed state system open all gates over night misunderstand the reality. Western media barely recognize that reforms of China’s administrative and the judicial systems are making headway, and that the situation of human rights in the country has significantly improved.

From discussions with law professors and experts in Freiburg, I know for a fact that German legal experts participated as consultants in the Chinese judicial reforms and that many paragraphs of the German legal code made their way into the Chinese reform plans.

“The impartiality of the judiciary is an important guarantee for social justice” – this is a main principle of Chinese domestic policy as well as a cornerstone of the Chinese judicial reform. However, as in many other fields, there still remains a lot to do to improve China’s legal system. The aim is to bring its socialist values in line with the principles of the rule of law and to provide the people with as high a degree of legal security as possible.

The reforms are ongoing. In this aspect, too, China is in the process of continuous development. Yet, freedom of thought and acts of conscience are no longer meaningless notions in China. Although restraints in the media and the Internet still exist to some extent, it cannot be denied that unnecessary restrictions in this field, too, are gradually being lifted. In any case, one would be hard pushed to name one country in the world where absolute freedom of opinion exists – it simply doesn’t.

It’s not only the Chinese who benefit from Deng Xiaoping’s policy of reform and opening-up. As China becomes one of the leading engines of the world economy, we in the West not only enjoy cheap, high-quality products made in China, but also profit from the huge Chinese market, one of the biggest and most profitable on the globe.

Today, China is also a leader in many high-tech industries. My rooftop, for example, is outfitted with a photovoltaic system produced in China. I decided to install this product because the Chinese manufacturer is among the most experienced and reliable companies in the industry.

In my opinion, China’s commitment during the European sovereign debt crisis should also be highly valued by the West. In this context, the importance of the Chinese partnership was revealed once more. Furthermore, without the strength of the Chinese economy, the creature comforts that many of us enjoy in our countries today would have been impossible.

I think that ultimately, it is a nation’s people who are the driving force behind such impressive success. And in this respect the conditions in China couldn’t be better.