THE WORLD ATLAS

Trade · 1978 onwards

China's reform and opening-up

Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, Guangdong (China)

Two years after Mao Zedong's death, the Chinese Communist Party, guided by Deng Xiaoping, launched 'reform and opening-up' on 18 December 1978, gradually opening the economy to markets and foreign investment. Shenzhen, on the border with Hong Kong, was made a special economic zone on 1 May 1980 and grew from a largely rural area into a global metropolis; China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

See it on the map

Deng Xiaoping with President Jimmy Carter at the White House, 29 January 1979, a month after reform and opening-up began
Deng Xiaoping with President Jimmy Carter at the White House, 29 January 1979, a month after reform and opening-up began White House / US National Archives · Public domain (US federal government)

Why it mattered

Between 1978 and 2018 China reduced extreme poverty by 800 million people, became the world's leading manufacturing power and in 2010 overtook Japan as the world's second-largest economy.

Related

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