Starting from 1840, in order to open up China's sales market and raw material producing areas, the great powers, relying on their strong economic strength and powerful advantages of ships and guns, launched wars of aggression against China again and again, forcing the Qing government to sign a series of unequal treaties, such as treaty of nanking, treaty of shimonoseki, and the Treaty of Hatred and Ugliness. China's national sovereignty has been severely trampled on, and the Chinese nation is facing extinction.

193 1 year, Japan launched the September 18th Incident, and the survival of the Chinese nation was once again seriously threatened. In order to save the nation from peril, people inside and outside Shanhaiguan launched a massive anti-Japanese national salvation movement, which started from the Lugouqiao Incident and developed into a national War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression based on ethnic cooperation, showing invincible national cohesion. Finally in August 1945. The heroic and unyielding struggle spirit of the Chinese nation in defending the motherland, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and opposing foreign aggression constitutes an important connotation of patriotism and inspires the Chinese nation to become increasingly prosperous.

After the founding of New China, China has made great achievements in economic construction. However, for a long time, due to the closed door, the Great Leap Forward and the people's commune movement, especially the long-term turmoil and destruction of the Cultural Revolution, the gap between China's economic development and the developed countries in the world has been widening. The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party shifted the focus of domestic work and opened a new era of reform and opening up.

Hu Jintao pointed out in the report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China: "Reform and opening up is the key choice to determine the fate of contemporary China, and the only way to develop Socialism with Chinese characteristics and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation; Only socialism can save China. Only reform and opening up can develop China, socialism and Marxism. " This passage profoundly explained the historical position and important role of reform and opening up in the great cause of Socialism with Chinese characteristics, and fully expressed our party's determination and confidence to unswervingly adhere to the Socialism with Chinese characteristics road and continue to promote the great cause of reform and opening up.

So, in the process of building and developing Socialism with Chinese characteristics, what are the major historical roles of reform and opening up?

1. Reform and opening-up have put China on the road of Socialism with Chinese characteristics.

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the second generation of central collective leadership with Deng Xiaoping at the core set things right with extraordinary courage and boldness, re-established the ideological line of emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts, resolutely stopped the slogan of "taking class struggle as the key link", promptly shifted the focus of the party and the state to economic construction, and made a great decision of reform and opening up. At that time, our party made a major decision on reform and opening-up, mainly for two reasons: on the one hand, from China's own situation, the civil strife in the decade of the Cultural Revolution caused serious setbacks and losses to the party, the country and the people. As Deng Xiaoping said, when the "Cultural Revolution" ended, the whole political situation was in a state of chaos. As far as the overall economic situation is concerned, it is in a state of slow development and stagnation. In this case, we must enhance the vitality of socialism in China, liberate and develop social productive forces and improve people's lives through reform and opening up; On the other hand, from the external environment, the world's new scientific and technological revolution flourished in the 1970s, which promoted the world economy to develop at a faster speed. The gap between China's economic strength, scientific and technological strength and the international advanced level obviously widened, and it faced enormous international competition pressure. In this case, only through reform and opening up can we lead the people to keep pace with the times and make socialist China catch up with or surpass the developed countries in the world as soon as possible. It is precisely because our party unswervingly held up the great banner of reform and opening up and carried out the major policies of reform and opening up that it gradually guided the people of the whole country onto the road of Socialism with Chinese characteristics. At the Twelfth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Deng Xiaoping clearly put forward the historical task of "building Socialism with Chinese characteristics" to the whole party. The 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China systematically expounded the theory of the primary stage of socialism and comprehensively expounded the party's basic line of "one center and two basic points". The 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China established the guiding position of Deng Xiaoping's theory of building Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the whole party, and clearly put forward that the goal of China's economic system reform is to establish a socialist market economic system. The 15th National Congress of communist party, China, guided by Deng Xiaoping Theory, formulated the trans-century development strategy of China, and pushed the cause of building Socialism with Chinese characteristics into 2 1 century. The 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly put forward the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way, requiring the whole party to further create a new situation in the cause of Socialism with Chinese characteristics. The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly stated that we should continue to hold high the great banner of Socialism with Chinese characteristics, unswervingly push forward reform and opening up, and strive to broaden the road of Socialism with Chinese characteristics.

2. The reform and opening up has made China's productive forces develop rapidly and its comprehensive national strength improve rapidly.

Reform and opening up have made Socialism with Chinese characteristics full of vitality. By reforming the traditional socialist model, we have achieved a series of important institutional innovations and initially formed a relatively complete Socialism with Chinese characteristics system. The reform and opening up has greatly mobilized the enthusiasm and creativity of the broad masses of the people, and has also brought great benefits to the broad masses of the people, causing great changes in their ideas, values, mental state, ways of thinking and behavior. Over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, China's socialist modernization has made remarkable achievements. From the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party to today, it can be said that China's productive forces have developed fastest, its comprehensive national strength has been enhanced fastest, and people's living standards have been improved fastest for 30 years. It is under the impetus of reform and opening up that China has successfully achieved a great historical turning point from a highly centralized planned economy system to a dynamic socialist market economy system, and from a closed and semi-closed to an all-round opening. Historical changes have taken place in China's views on people, socialist China and China's views on the production party. After 30 years of reform and opening up, China has basically established a basic economic system with public ownership as the main body and multiple ownership economies developing together; The country's economic strength has been significantly enhanced. The gross domestic product (GDP) increased from 364.5 billion yuan in 1978 to 209407 billion yuan in 2006, with an average annual growth rate of more than 9%, and the total economic output jumped to the fourth place in the world. Industry continued to grow rapidly, with an average annual growth rate exceeding 1 1% from 1979 to 2006. The state's fiscal revenue and foreign exchange reserves have increased substantially, and the state's foreign exchange reserves have jumped to the top in the world; The total import and export volume of foreign trade increased from 1978 to1760.7 billion in 2006, ranking third in the world. People's lives have improved significantly. From 1978 to 2006, the per capita disposable income of urban residents increased from 343.4 yuan to1759 yuan, and the per capita net income of farmers increased from 133.6 yuan to 3587 yuan. The social security system with pension, medical care and unemployment insurance for urban workers as the main contents has been gradually improved; New breakthroughs have been made in the construction of socialist political civilization, new steps have been taken in the reform of the political system, new progress has been made in the construction of a legal system adapted to the socialist market economy, various social undertakings such as science and technology, education, culture, health and sports have developed rapidly, social lifestyles have become increasingly colorful, and people's mental outlook has been constantly updated.

3. Reform and opening up have made Socialism with Chinese characteristics's system more perfect.

Engels pointed out: "The so-called' socialist society' is not a static thing, but should be regarded as a society that is constantly changing and reforming like any other social system." Under socialist conditions, the essence of reform is the self-improvement and development of the socialist system. This kind of perfection and development cannot be realized naturally. It needs to be promoted through reform and developed by continuously absorbing the outstanding achievements of human civilization through opening up. After the founding of New China, with the successful completion of socialist transformation, we gradually established the basic socialist system. However, due to the influence of China's national conditions and Soviet socialist model, China's socialist system is still far from perfect for a long time. After 30 years of reform and opening-up, we have fundamentally broken the institutional obstacles that constrain the development of productive forces, successfully explored Socialism with Chinese characteristics's economic system, political system, cultural system and social system, freed Socialism with Chinese characteristics from the "Soviet model" in terms of system, and initially established a new system and a new system in Socialism with Chinese characteristics suitable for China's national conditions. In the economic field, we have successfully established and improved the basic economic system with public ownership as the main body and multiple ownership economies developing together. A distribution system with distribution according to work as the main body and various modes of distribution coexisting has been implemented, which not only allows and encourages some regions and some people to get rich first, but also adheres to the fundamental goal of * * * common prosperity and strives to solve outstanding problems that affect social fairness and justice. In particular, boldly explore and gradually establish and improve the socialist market economic system, which not only pays attention to the basic role of the market economy in liberating productive forces and allocating market resources, but also gives full play to the superiority of the socialist system in improving people's livelihood and maintaining social harmony and order; In the political field, we have further developed and improved the socialist democratic political system, constantly reformed and improved the Party's leadership style and ruling style in accordance with the principles of scientific, democratic and legal governance, earnestly strengthened and improved the legislation and supervision of the People's Congress, actively promoted the unity and cooperation of all parties and personages without party affiliation in the CPPCC, and established and gradually improved the democratic management system of grassroots political power, grassroots organizations, enterprises and institutions in urban and rural areas. We will improve the systems of democratic election, democratic decision-making and democratic supervision, and implement the systems of openness in government affairs, factory affairs and village affairs. And constantly promote the construction of socialist democratic politics; In the field of culture, we have comprehensively innovated Socialism with Chinese characteristics's cultural system and mechanism, persisted in guiding socialist cultural construction with the latest achievements of Marxism in China, vigorously built the socialist core value system, comprehensively promoted cultural system reform, and accelerated the pace of cultural innovation. Through cultural marketization and ownership reform, cultural industrialization, financial investment mechanism reform and comprehensive system innovation, a cultural industry pattern with public ownership as the main body and multiple ownership systems developing together has been formed, which has created the cultural system and mechanism in Socialism with Chinese characteristics and promoted the cultural undertakings in Socialism with Chinese characteristics. In the field of social construction, we clearly put forward the strategic goal of building a harmonious socialist society, and established and improved a series of institutional measures conducive to scientific development and social harmony, so that the fruits of economic development are more reflected in improving people's livelihood. All these have effectively promoted the further improvement of the socialist system.

4. Reform and opening-up have made the overall layout of Socialism with Chinese characteristics construction more perfect.

Understanding and grasping the overall layout of Socialism with Chinese characteristics's construction is gradually deepened and improved by our party in the great practice of reform and opening up for 30 years and on the basis of constantly summing up the practical experience of socialist modernization. Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, while constantly improving the socialist economic, political, cultural and social systems, our party has also been constantly exploring the overall layout of building socialism. At the beginning of reform and opening-up, our party put forward the "two-in-one" layout of economy and culture with the construction of socialist material civilization and spiritual civilization as the main symbol and the guiding principle of "grasping with both hands and being hard with both hands". The Sixteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China profoundly summarized the positive and negative experiences and lessons of socialist modernization and put forward the overall layout of socialist construction with "three-in-one" of economic construction, political construction and cultural construction. With the continuous development of the cause of the party and the state, our party has gradually put the issue of social construction on the important agenda according to the staged characteristics of China's economic and social development. The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China innovatively made a major plan to promote social construction focusing on improving people's livelihood, and developed the overall layout of socialist modernization from the "trinity" to the "four in one" of economic construction, political construction, cultural construction and social construction. From "two in one" to "three in one" and then to "four in one", it clearly reflects the development and evolution of the overall layout of socialist modernization. This new layout adapts to the new ideas of China's reform and opening up, and embodies the new requirements of Scientific Outlook on Development and building a harmonious socialist society.

5. Reform and opening-up have deepened our Party's understanding of the laws of socialist construction.

The success of the reform and opening up in the past 30 years mainly depends on our Party's profound grasp and scientific understanding of the laws of economic and social development, globalization development and changes of the ruling party in China. This understanding of regularity comes not only from Marxist world outlook and methodology, but also from our party's ideological line of "emancipating the mind, seeking truth from facts and keeping pace with the times", and even more from the great practice of reform and opening up itself. Comrade Hu Jintao summed up the historical experience of China's reform and opening up in the report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and summarized the "ten combinations" of consolidating and developing Socialism with Chinese characteristics, namely, "In the historical process of reform and opening up, our party combined upholding the basic principles of Marxism with promoting the China of Marxism, adhering to the four cardinal principles with persisting in reform and opening up, and respecting the people's initiative with strengthening and improving the party's leadership. Combine adhering to the basic socialist system with developing the market economy, reforming the superstructure with promoting the transformation of the economic base, developing social productive forces with improving the quality of civilization of the whole nation, improving efficiency with promoting social equity, adhering to independence with participating in economic globalization, and promoting reform and development with maintaining social stability. Combining the great cause of Socialism with Chinese characteristics with the great project of party building, we have gained valuable experience in getting rid of poverty, speeding up modernization and consolidating and developing socialism in a developing country with a population of more than one billion. " This "ten combinations" fully embodies our Party's regular understanding of Socialism with Chinese characteristics's road. It clearly tells us that reform and opening up, as a great revolution, can not be smooth sailing, nor can it be achieved overnight. The direction of reform and opening up is irreversible, and the achievements and achievements are undeniable. There is no way out for pause and retrogression.