lvhonglai
Member
- Oct 14, 2025
- 26
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Reform and opening up have been the defining features of China over the past four decades, and this has become a widely accepted consensus. If someone were to say today that China has never truly experienced reform and opening up, many people would disagree and raise objections and questions. However, if we think about it seriously, instead of blindly following the crowd or being misled by official propaganda, we will inevitably arrive at a conclusion that we ourselves might find hard to believe.
First, to prove that China has never had true reform and opening up, we must first understand why the CCP proposed reform and opening up in the first place. It's important to know that reform and opening up was not inherent in the nature of the CCP regime. When Deng Xiaoping proposed reform and opening up in 1978, it was primarily because the ten years of the Cultural Revolution had brought the Chinese economy to the brink of collapse, with low productivity, widespread poverty, and prolonged political instability, leaving everyone feeling insecure. The situation forced those CCP leaders who had just emerged from political persecution to make this choice. In other words, reform and opening up did not stem from the ideals and beliefs of the Communist Party, but rather from compulsion and necessity.
Secondly, after the CCP proposed the reform and opening-up policy, the top leaders of the CCP never intended to carry out genuine reforms and opening up from the very beginning. Instead, they aimed to alleviate political and economic pressure through reform and opening up, and to salvage the leadership of the Communist Party and the socialist cause. The most convincing evidence for this is Deng Xiaoping's "black cat or white cat" theory, who was the de facto ruler of China at the time, and the "Four Cardinal Principles" put forward at the beginning of the reform period. This meant that the reform and opening up were destined from the start to be an incomplete and insubstantial pseudo-reform and pseudo-opening up.
Lu Honglai: China has never had true reform and opening up.
Third, because the CCP's top ruling class never intended to carry out genuine reforms and opening up from the very beginning, although reformists Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang were nominally in power at the time, they did not hold real power in the country. Therefore, the CCP's so-called reforms and opening up were merely superficial gestures. The political system, judicial system, nationalization of the military, land privatization, freedom of the press, and freedom of association—all of which should have been reformed—have remained unchanged for over forty years. The areas that should have been opened up—news, media, communications, education, and the internet—have also remained closed for over forty years. Where is there even a hint of genuine reform and opening up?
Fourth, because the CCP's top leadership never intended to carry out genuine reforms from the very beginning, the CCP's reforms were merely superficial from the start. They had no intention of truly integrating China into the civilized world, truly embracing universal values, or truly building a free, democratic, and law-governed society. Furthermore, they forced Hu Yaobang, who advocated for reform, to his death and imprisoned Zhao Ziyang, who also championed reform. How can this be considered genuine reform? It's clearly a betrayal and suppression of true reform!
Fourth, the CCP's reforms were never intended to truly integrate China into the civilized world, to truly embrace universal values, or to truly build a free, democratic, and law-governed society. Furthermore, at a critical juncture in the reforms, they forced the death of Hu Yaobang, who advocated for reform, and imprisoned Zhao Ziyang, who also supported reform. This is clearly not genuine reform; it's a blatant betrayal of true reform!
The facts mentioned above irrefutably prove that the CCP's so-called reform and opening up was a sham reform and a false opening up. The supposed grand scale of these reforms was merely for show, and the so-called drastic measures were purely superficial. It was entirely a case of using the name of reform and opening up to consolidate and strengthen the CCP's one-party authoritarian rule; there was never any intention of truly implementing reform and opening up!
Over forty years of evidence proves that the CCP's so-called "opening up" is entirely the world opening up to China, not China truly opening up to the world. It is the entire international community that has opened its doors to China, not China that has opened its doors to the international community. Chinese-made products flood every corner of the world, while human civilization and universal values are kept outside China's borders!
Lu Honglai: China has never had true reform and opening up.
Then someone will inevitably ask: Since the facts prove that China has never had true reform and opening up, how can we explain China's economic miracle and the rapid economic development of the past forty years?
What the Chinese people are most proud of and what is most worth highlighting about the reform and opening up is China's rapid economic development and its rise to become the world's second-largest economy. However, it must be emphasized here that this is not the result of reform and opening up, but mainly the result of economic recovery-type development, achieved through plagiarism, copying, intellectual property theft, exploitation of cheap labor, and integration into globalization through deceptive means.
Firstly, the rapid economic development of China over the past four decades was not due to genuine reform and opening up, but rather to limited economic and market liberalization, and to the shift of the entire country from the politically extreme policy of "taking class struggle as the key link" to a more politically relaxed policy centered on economic development. Therefore, the economic development during this period was primarily a recovery-driven process, which formed the basis for China's rapid economic growth over the past four decades;
Secondly, a large part of the economic development achieved by China over the past four decades has been based on intellectual property theft, plagiarism, copying, piracy, and the exploitation of workers' labor. Examples of this are numerous, and these were the main methods and means by which China achieved rapid economic development over the past forty years.
Third, the rapid development of the Chinese economy over the past four decades is due to globalization, and to the fact that the CCP, through deceptive means, joined the WTO, allowing it to dump products manufactured with stolen intellectual property and cheap labor onto the global market. This is the most important factor in the rapid development of the Chinese economy over the past four decades;
Fourth, China's rapid economic development over the past four decades has come at the cost of severe environmental and resource degradation. This includes serious pollution of the environment, water resources, and soil; a sharp decline in arable land and forest area; accelerated desertification; and a reduction in biodiversity. This development, achieved at the expense of severe environmental and resource damage, is essentially consuming the resources of future generations and jeopardizing their future. This is the heavy price paid for China's rapid economic development over the past four decades!
After we understand the foundations, methods, and most important factors behind China's rapid economic development over the past decade, as well as the heavy price paid, will people still consider this a great achievement of reform and opening up? Will they still feel proud and boastful? Will they still consider it some kind of miracle?
Fifth, as a recovery-driven economic development, economic growth will have a peak and a cycle, and will stagnate after reaching the peak and completing the cycle. This is because the benefits brought about by limited economic and market liberalization are very limited. These benefits refer to the limited positive impetus that limited economic and market liberalization can provide to economic development and social progress, and this has already become fully evident.
Sixth, for the past forty years, China's economy has fundamentally not been an innovative economy; it lacks advanced technology and creativity. For the Chinese economy to continue developing, it needs to constantly deepen reforms and expand opening up, until it achieves complete marketization and liberalization. Only by truly transitioning from a recovery-oriented economy to an innovative economy can it maintain economic vitality and sustainable development.
In summary, the Chinese economy is by no means a miracle. The reason some people constantly believe that China's economic development since the reform and opening up is some kind of human development miracle, that China's economic development is something extraordinary, that it represents a unique Chinese development model or successful Chinese experience, is because these people have fundamentally failed to recognize that the CCP is pursuing a false reform and a false opening up.
If we absolutely must describe China's economic development as a miracle, a model, or an experience, then the fact that the CCP regime, relying primarily on sham reforms and opening up, intellectual property theft, plagiarism and piracy, cheap labor, and deceiving the international community, has become the world's second-largest economy is indeed a world miracle, a truly unique Chinese model and experience. The question is, isn't such a miracle and development model a disgrace to the Chinese nation? What is there to be proud of? What is there to learn from or emulate? On the contrary, the civilized world today should learn lessons from the CCP regime's deception of the international community through its false reforms and opening up.
As U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated: We welcomed the Chinese Communist Party into the global order, but they have taken advantage of all the benefits of the global order while disregarding all of its obligations and responsibilities. They have achieved their status as a global superpower through repression, lies, deception, hacking, and theft.
Finally, it needs to be emphasized that: precisely because the CCP's reform and opening up was not driven by the ideals and beliefs of the Communist Party from the very beginning, but rather by coercion and necessity, the failure of this reform and opening up was predetermined from the start. If China had truly implemented reforms over the past forty years, abandoned one-party authoritarian rule, and genuinely opened up its news, media, communications, education, and the internet, integrating itself into the civilized world, China would not have reached its current state, and it certainly wouldn't be returning to an imperial era!
First, to prove that China has never had true reform and opening up, we must first understand why the CCP proposed reform and opening up in the first place. It's important to know that reform and opening up was not inherent in the nature of the CCP regime. When Deng Xiaoping proposed reform and opening up in 1978, it was primarily because the ten years of the Cultural Revolution had brought the Chinese economy to the brink of collapse, with low productivity, widespread poverty, and prolonged political instability, leaving everyone feeling insecure. The situation forced those CCP leaders who had just emerged from political persecution to make this choice. In other words, reform and opening up did not stem from the ideals and beliefs of the Communist Party, but rather from compulsion and necessity.
Secondly, after the CCP proposed the reform and opening-up policy, the top leaders of the CCP never intended to carry out genuine reforms and opening up from the very beginning. Instead, they aimed to alleviate political and economic pressure through reform and opening up, and to salvage the leadership of the Communist Party and the socialist cause. The most convincing evidence for this is Deng Xiaoping's "black cat or white cat" theory, who was the de facto ruler of China at the time, and the "Four Cardinal Principles" put forward at the beginning of the reform period. This meant that the reform and opening up were destined from the start to be an incomplete and insubstantial pseudo-reform and pseudo-opening up.
Lu Honglai: China has never had true reform and opening up.
Third, because the CCP's top ruling class never intended to carry out genuine reforms and opening up from the very beginning, although reformists Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang were nominally in power at the time, they did not hold real power in the country. Therefore, the CCP's so-called reforms and opening up were merely superficial gestures. The political system, judicial system, nationalization of the military, land privatization, freedom of the press, and freedom of association—all of which should have been reformed—have remained unchanged for over forty years. The areas that should have been opened up—news, media, communications, education, and the internet—have also remained closed for over forty years. Where is there even a hint of genuine reform and opening up?
Fourth, because the CCP's top leadership never intended to carry out genuine reforms from the very beginning, the CCP's reforms were merely superficial from the start. They had no intention of truly integrating China into the civilized world, truly embracing universal values, or truly building a free, democratic, and law-governed society. Furthermore, they forced Hu Yaobang, who advocated for reform, to his death and imprisoned Zhao Ziyang, who also championed reform. How can this be considered genuine reform? It's clearly a betrayal and suppression of true reform!
Fourth, the CCP's reforms were never intended to truly integrate China into the civilized world, to truly embrace universal values, or to truly build a free, democratic, and law-governed society. Furthermore, at a critical juncture in the reforms, they forced the death of Hu Yaobang, who advocated for reform, and imprisoned Zhao Ziyang, who also supported reform. This is clearly not genuine reform; it's a blatant betrayal of true reform!
The facts mentioned above irrefutably prove that the CCP's so-called reform and opening up was a sham reform and a false opening up. The supposed grand scale of these reforms was merely for show, and the so-called drastic measures were purely superficial. It was entirely a case of using the name of reform and opening up to consolidate and strengthen the CCP's one-party authoritarian rule; there was never any intention of truly implementing reform and opening up!
Over forty years of evidence proves that the CCP's so-called "opening up" is entirely the world opening up to China, not China truly opening up to the world. It is the entire international community that has opened its doors to China, not China that has opened its doors to the international community. Chinese-made products flood every corner of the world, while human civilization and universal values are kept outside China's borders!
Lu Honglai: China has never had true reform and opening up.
Then someone will inevitably ask: Since the facts prove that China has never had true reform and opening up, how can we explain China's economic miracle and the rapid economic development of the past forty years?
What the Chinese people are most proud of and what is most worth highlighting about the reform and opening up is China's rapid economic development and its rise to become the world's second-largest economy. However, it must be emphasized here that this is not the result of reform and opening up, but mainly the result of economic recovery-type development, achieved through plagiarism, copying, intellectual property theft, exploitation of cheap labor, and integration into globalization through deceptive means.
Firstly, the rapid economic development of China over the past four decades was not due to genuine reform and opening up, but rather to limited economic and market liberalization, and to the shift of the entire country from the politically extreme policy of "taking class struggle as the key link" to a more politically relaxed policy centered on economic development. Therefore, the economic development during this period was primarily a recovery-driven process, which formed the basis for China's rapid economic growth over the past four decades;
Secondly, a large part of the economic development achieved by China over the past four decades has been based on intellectual property theft, plagiarism, copying, piracy, and the exploitation of workers' labor. Examples of this are numerous, and these were the main methods and means by which China achieved rapid economic development over the past forty years.
Third, the rapid development of the Chinese economy over the past four decades is due to globalization, and to the fact that the CCP, through deceptive means, joined the WTO, allowing it to dump products manufactured with stolen intellectual property and cheap labor onto the global market. This is the most important factor in the rapid development of the Chinese economy over the past four decades;
Fourth, China's rapid economic development over the past four decades has come at the cost of severe environmental and resource degradation. This includes serious pollution of the environment, water resources, and soil; a sharp decline in arable land and forest area; accelerated desertification; and a reduction in biodiversity. This development, achieved at the expense of severe environmental and resource damage, is essentially consuming the resources of future generations and jeopardizing their future. This is the heavy price paid for China's rapid economic development over the past four decades!
After we understand the foundations, methods, and most important factors behind China's rapid economic development over the past decade, as well as the heavy price paid, will people still consider this a great achievement of reform and opening up? Will they still feel proud and boastful? Will they still consider it some kind of miracle?
Fifth, as a recovery-driven economic development, economic growth will have a peak and a cycle, and will stagnate after reaching the peak and completing the cycle. This is because the benefits brought about by limited economic and market liberalization are very limited. These benefits refer to the limited positive impetus that limited economic and market liberalization can provide to economic development and social progress, and this has already become fully evident.
Sixth, for the past forty years, China's economy has fundamentally not been an innovative economy; it lacks advanced technology and creativity. For the Chinese economy to continue developing, it needs to constantly deepen reforms and expand opening up, until it achieves complete marketization and liberalization. Only by truly transitioning from a recovery-oriented economy to an innovative economy can it maintain economic vitality and sustainable development.
In summary, the Chinese economy is by no means a miracle. The reason some people constantly believe that China's economic development since the reform and opening up is some kind of human development miracle, that China's economic development is something extraordinary, that it represents a unique Chinese development model or successful Chinese experience, is because these people have fundamentally failed to recognize that the CCP is pursuing a false reform and a false opening up.
If we absolutely must describe China's economic development as a miracle, a model, or an experience, then the fact that the CCP regime, relying primarily on sham reforms and opening up, intellectual property theft, plagiarism and piracy, cheap labor, and deceiving the international community, has become the world's second-largest economy is indeed a world miracle, a truly unique Chinese model and experience. The question is, isn't such a miracle and development model a disgrace to the Chinese nation? What is there to be proud of? What is there to learn from or emulate? On the contrary, the civilized world today should learn lessons from the CCP regime's deception of the international community through its false reforms and opening up.
As U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated: We welcomed the Chinese Communist Party into the global order, but they have taken advantage of all the benefits of the global order while disregarding all of its obligations and responsibilities. They have achieved their status as a global superpower through repression, lies, deception, hacking, and theft.
Finally, it needs to be emphasized that: precisely because the CCP's reform and opening up was not driven by the ideals and beliefs of the Communist Party from the very beginning, but rather by coercion and necessity, the failure of this reform and opening up was predetermined from the start. If China had truly implemented reforms over the past forty years, abandoned one-party authoritarian rule, and genuinely opened up its news, media, communications, education, and the internet, integrating itself into the civilized world, China would not have reached its current state, and it certainly wouldn't be returning to an imperial era!
