China's success story is unique in humanity

My name is Allegra Nzege. I am a Swiss woman living and studying in China. Since 2012 China has been welcoming more than 300,000 foreign students every year,ranking the country at third place on the list of the most favored study abroad destinations after the United States and the United Kingdom.

This new reality is a direct reflection of how the reform and opening-up policy in the Seventies undeniably became the most important turning point in the modern history of China. My journey as a Swiss student became tied with China four years ago. I was an undergraduate at a British university in London and got the opportunity to learn a foreign language in my last year of study, free-of-charge.

I choose to learn Chinese and loved the language so much that I decided to write my bachelor's thesis on China’s socioeconomic development over a period of 100 years. My whole experience, first as a Swiss student discovering the Chinese economic boom and second as an international student in a Chinese university, is linked to the incredible opportunities created by the reform and opening-up policy. The project was bold and the result brilliant. Although the reform was launched in 1978, a decade before my birth, I as well as millions of people worldwide and within China have felt the positive outcome of this reform.

Indeed, Deng Xiaoping realized that the adaptation of the Chinese economy to the existing global free-market economic structure was necessary for ushering in an era of successful development. The turning point of the reform discussion took place during the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in December 1978.

At this meeting, the new reform, named “reform and opening-up policy”, was initiated to resume the course for developing the Chinese economy with the principle of the “four modernizations” in agriculture, industry, science and defense. This introduced more free market-based principles around the economy where foreign trade and foreign investment were encouraged. Through the reform implementation, Deng Xiaoping's political approach was characterized by a singular ideological and practical method of realism and gradualism.

Since this new set of reforms was never tried in China before, the government decided to be cautious in the way it was put in place by emphasizing the importance of learning by trial and error. As a result, the principle of the four modernizations was first tried in coastal regions of the country. After positive outcome was observed, it was applied to the rest of the country.

The importance of the reform and opening-up policy that contributed to the evolution of economic development not only created significant work opportunities for the Chinese people but it also lifted an unprecedented number of Chinese citizens out of poverty.

Moreover, the rapid urbanization that occurred for the past 40 years led to the creation of new institutions and amelioration of existing institutional infrastructures in the educational system all over the country. This wave of change, coupled with growing trade relations of China on every continent of the world allowed ordinary students like me to have access to extraordinary experience.

The reform and opening-up policy gave the chance to thousands of foreigners to have access to work opportunities in business and education. Qualified teachers from the best universities are coming to teach both local students and international students from an eastern perspective. Students in my generation are blessed to live in an era where globalization is allowing us to be multilingual speakers and to develop a unique personal growth on the Chinese campus.

Since I moved in China four years ago, my experience has been enriching because of the reform and opening-up policy. I had the opportunity to live in Wuhan (Central China's Hubei province), Lanzhou (Northwest China's Gansu province) and Shanghai and saw with my own eyes the socioeconomic variation from one city to another. Shanghai, the city where I live, is a cosmopolitan megacity of 24 million inhabitants, which is three times the size of Switzerland!

The rapid industrialization and evolving dynamic of Chinese society from the “pre-opening-up” generation to the younger generation that has grown up during the reform era is remarkable: In Wuhan and Lanzhou, Chinese over 40 were not used to seeing foreigners and could rarely communicate in English or other languages. But Chinese younger than 40 more frequently could communicate in English or other languages, and were more likely to have foreign friends in their classes or their social circles, through which they were learning more about other countries and cultures, which is a direct sign of China’s internationalization.

The use of high-technology on a regular basis in each city I've lived in also has been an exciting experience. The use of mobile phones to make payments through the Alipay app at a supermarket, cinema or metro station has shown me how far Chinese science and technological development has come since the reform and opening-up policy, in contrast with Western Europe, where we predominantly still use cash to purchase items.

One of the most rewarding experiences for me is to observe that despite the modernity and high industrialization found in this country, Chinese citizens are keeping strong community ties with their families and friends. Seeing grandparents helping to raise their grandchildren is something that I enjoy seeing.

China’s development reform and modern society is a unique success story in humanity and I am proud to be a part of it as a foreign student in China.