The judgment of a nation's development will be more accurate if it is viewed from a global and epochs coordination, and the awareness of changes in a society will be much clearer and more cdistinct if a comparison is made from a perspective of history and reality.

The policy of reform and opening to the outside world is a "crucial choice" that has shaped today's China; it is by no means accidental but a trend of the times that has been advanced on the rigid, past situation of troubles from within and pressures imposed from without.

After the downfall of the Gang of Four counter-revolutionary clique in October 1976, the masses of revolutionary cadres and people aspired to correct grave errors of the so-called "cultural revolution"of 1966-1976, and to reverse the decade-long domestic turmoil, so that the Communist Party of China (CPC) would be able to rise again in the amidst of adversity.

China's per-capita GDP was lower than that of India when the market reform was initiated in 1978. In fact, the nation's GDP was only one-twentieth that of Japan and one-thirtieth of the United States at that time. As a matter of fact, China had a 40 year-plus gap with developed nations and a gap of some 20 years with such developing countries as the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Brazil in term of science and technological advancement. Owing to China's stunning gap with the world at large, CPC and the State had to stand immense, unprecedented pressures.

China at the crossroads then had to make a historic choice – whether it is determined to carry out the reform or to follow its beaten track. History and people in the country demanded the CPC to make this important policy decision.

The Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee held in December 1978, however, directed the huge vessel of China the way forward. Since then, CPC led people of all ethnic groups nationwide to launch a new, great revolution in the new, historical conditions. Efforts over the last three decades or so have enabled the Chinese nation to keep pace with the times and to greet bright prospects for its great rejuvenation.

Evidences have given an eloquent proof that the reform and opening-up is the crucial choice that decided the destiny of the Chinese nation and that only socialism can save China and that only reform and opening-up can develop China, socialism and Marxism.

It should be acknowledged that the three-decade reform and opening-up is the richest, most vivid and most convincing textbook. Only when this textbook is truly read through and fully understood can we consciously and unswervingly adhere to the correct orientation of the reform and opening-up. Nevertheless, it is definitely no easy job to take this correct road as China's reform and opening-up have been carried out in an extremely arduous environment.

Moreover, people have come to realize from their personal experiences that they can never backtrack and, otherwise, it would mean a deviation from the key, central issue of economic development and an endless cycle of troubles, and this could simply mean a dead end.
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