text | Documentary in the movie
Editor | Documentary in the movie
[Foreword]
How did China develop into the world's second largest economy under the pressure of the European Union and the United States?
Who is the operator of all this?
How did he single-handedly make China rise and stand on top of the world?
Tiananmen
[China’s rise is unstoppable]
After a century of humiliation, on October 1, 1949, with Chairman Mao’s announcement, China once again let the world see this "Lion of the East" and accepted it with a new attitude. new challenge!
Founding Ceremony
At the beginning of the birth of New China, it happened to be under the pattern of the Cold War between the East and the West, and the failure of Chiang Kai-shek made the Western countries headed by the United States full of hostility to New China!
Then they adopted the policy of "containment and isolation" against New China.
means to implement a comprehensive blockade on China, including political isolation, economic blockade, military threats and other means.
However, in the face of such obstacles, China has still moved forward step by step.
Although China has withstood various tests, domestic economic development has been stumbling and stagnant in the 1970s and 1980s.
China's GDP even experienced negative growth in some years!
It can be seen that China's economy is in a downturn. At that time, in the countryside, almost everyone wore patched clothes and could barely eat enough.
Therefore, the country urgently needs to develop the economy and help people live a good life.
If you want to develop rapidly, then joining GATT is the only way to go.
[1]
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade is a conclusion between countries. The purpose of its existence is to eliminate discriminatory treatment in international trade by substantially reducing tariffs and other trade barriers .
makes trade between countries freer!
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was signed in Geneva on October 30, 1947, and was officially launched more than a month later. In 1995, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was officially renamed the World Trade Organization.
In fact, China is one of the initial contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, but why did it take us 15 years to join?
All this stemmed from the defeat of the Kuomintang in Taiwan. At that time, the Kuomintang headed by Chiang Kai-shek, although far away on the island, was always thinking about counterattacking the mainland.
They were worried that New China would benefit from the GATT, so in 1950 the Kuomintang unilaterally announced its withdrawal from the GATT.
But since the founding of New China on October 1, 1949, the Kuomintang has no right to represent China, so their announcement of withdrawal is invalid.
However, there are always people who interfere with it, which leads to the problem of "resumption of customs" in China.
No one thought that the various problems China would encounter after the "resumption of customs" would make us suffer as much pain as if we were being cut off every step we took!
In 1985, all kinds of talents who will be of great significance to China in the future are still hibernating.
And China’s representatives for resumption of customs clearance were the first to stand up!
【二】
From September 30 to October 2, they held informal discussions and consultations with the United States, Japan, Canada and other countries on China's resumption of customs relations.
During the period, China proposed three principles:
“
1. China is resuming tariffs, not rejoining.
2. China will be prepared to undertake the tariff concessions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and is prepared to conduct substantive negotiations with contracting parties.
3. China Participate in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade as a developing country (developing countries are subject to lower tariffs)."
Most of these countries agreed, but the U.S. representative suddenly stood up and said clearly that they did not make the decision on this matter and needed to formally meet to decide.
And before that, China's foreign trade system needs to be in-depth Investigation.
In fact, the United States does not want China to rise, because China is asking for "resumption of customs". Once successful, China will regain its founding country status
and the GATT will give China unconditional preferential treatment. The import tariff for preferential countries in the United States is 3.4%, and the import tariff for non-preferential countries is as high as 37%.
The United States does not want this to happen. After all, they have already reached a consensus within themselves to impose sanctions on China.
Qiu Wenmin also knows. It was not easy to resume customs clearance, so in the following period, he often took people to visit countries that had joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to learn from experience.
On July 10, 1986, China officially submitted its application for restoration of customs clearance. What no one expected was that China's road to resumption of customs would be arduous and complex, and it would take fifteen years!
The Chinese delegation had four different heads, the United States had five chief negotiators, and the EU had Four, we can see the difficulty of China's resumption of customs.
During this period, my country's internal economic problems have once again become prominent!
[3]
In fact, since the founding of New China, our country has always attached great importance to economic issues, but at that time Internally, there is the mess left by the Kuomintang and the constant troubles caused by spies.
Externally, there are various blockades imposed on us by Western countries led by the United States. This has resulted in China's economic development path not making great progress until the 20th century. In the late 1970s, Deng Xiaoping proposed a great policy of reform and opening up based on the national conditions.
Deng Xiaoping
Reform and opening up are actually two concepts.
The whole process of reform is the reform of the economic system, and the plan is to transform the original . The public ownership economic system was changed to a non-public ownership market economy system.
To put it simply, in agriculture, land is divided and everyone does their own thing. In industry, private enterprises are also supported. The reform in agriculture is relatively simple, and only one land is allocated.
In this way, every household has its own land use. Of course, farmers only have the right to use the land, not ownership.
In the history of our junior high school, everyone should have learned, Household responsibility system :
"Big contract, big contract, pay enough to the country, keep enough to the collective, and the rest is yours."
This is a big deal Mobilizing farmers' enthusiasm not only improves their living standards, but also promotes the country's economic development.
But industrial reform is more complicated. The country cannot divide the factory equally. The engine is yours and the assembly line is mine. How can a factory like
still operate? So it is necessary to ensure the integrity of the factory.
So since it cannot be distributed, how can we achieve fair privatization?
You can't give a factory to a certain person. Others will definitely not be willing to do so, but it is not realistic to ask everyone to buy it.
At that time, the Chinese people were all the same. They had little money in their pockets and could not afford to buy a factory.
At this point, the government came up with the idea of contracting.
contracts the factory to the corresponding person, and the contractor has to pay a contracting fee. For those large public-owned enterprises, the government changes them to state-owned enterprises.
Opening up refers to opening up the country and introducing some foreign companies into China.
This allows us to quickly learn advanced foreign technologies and management methods, promote the development and progress of our country's enterprises, and achieve overtaking in corners.
In 1979, the higher authorities approved Guangdong and Fujian to implement "special policies and flexible measures" in foreign economic activities, and decided to establish special economic zones in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Xiamen, and Shantou.
However, by 1985, China's economy had not grown for seven consecutive years, so in early 1992, China was facing a major historical juncture of where to go.
Deng Xiaoping stood up!
Deng Xiaoping
【IV】
On November 18, the 88-year-old Mr. Deng got on the train bound for Wuchang and started his southern tour!
This is one of the important scenes that determined the development of modern China. Deng Xiaoping's speech gave the Chinese people a spring breeze!
At that time, it can be said that as long as you were brave, you would almost never lose money if you went into business. Countless people developed in that era.
Deng Xiaoping’s trip was kept strictly confidential, and he specifically warned not to make it public.
After Deng Xiaoping got off the bus in Wuchang, the main leaders of Hubei Province reported on the main developments in recent years one by one.
After a brief exchange between the two parties, Deng Xiaoping left by train. Because he had a heavy mission this time, he stayed in Shenzhen and Zhuhai in Guangdong Province for the longest time.
He found that the economic development of these two cities was very advanced compared to the whole country, which undoubtedly confirmed the success of Deng Xiaoping's establishment of special economic zones.
Comparison before and after reform
In Shenzhen, the public economy is still the mainstay, and foreign enterprises only account for a small part. This not only obtains advanced foreign technology, but also protects local enterprises.
And the economic development of Shenzhen Expressway proved to the whole country the feasibility of reform. At that time, Deng Xiaoping proposed:
"Reform cannot be like a woman with small feet. You must be bolder. You must not be like a woman with small feet. You must do it boldly and break through boldly." , if you are wrong, correct it, and if you are right, continue to do it, don’t be afraid. "
This year is a key node in determining China's future development. In his speech in the South, Deng Xiaoping emphasized that China will remain unwavering in adhering to the socialist path for a hundred years. It is only in the initial stage of development.
The path of socialist development requires persistence for a long time, and this requires the hard work of the Chinese people.
China’s total GDP this year was US$426.9 billion, and that of the United States was US$6.540 billion.
Although the two sides are still far behind in terms of numbers, fortunately, China has emerged from the economic quagmire of no growth for seven consecutive years.
The implementation of the reform and opening up policy has greatly accelerated China's resumption of customs clearance. Previously, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade mainly reviewed China's economic system, especially the policy of opening up to the outside world.
However, when they conducted an on-the-spot investigation, they found that China’s management rights were relatively loose, foreign trade was operated independently, profits or losses were borne independently, and export pricing was normal, with no one interfering.
With the deepening of reform and opening up, the resumption of customs clearance has also been carried out smoothly step by step. The two can be said to complement each other. It can be said that only with reform and opening up, China has the conditions to join the WTO .
Since the establishment of the customs in 1992, negotiations on the resumption of customs relations have gone very smoothly. The negotiations are divided into two parts, one is bilateral negotiation, and the other is multilateral negotiation.
Sino-US negotiations
Simply put, bilateral negotiations are market access negotiations between China and WTO members.
This involves tariff levels, import restrictions, opening of service trade, etc.
Multilateral negotiations are the drafting process of China’s agreement and work report, with the focus being on compliance with WTO rules.
As long as these two negotiations are completed, we can truly join the WTO!
This process was difficult and torturous. At that time, there were more than 130 members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and there were a total of 37 countries that wanted to conduct bilateral negotiations with us.
According to regulations, agreements must be reached with all 37 countries.
But the national conditions of so many countries are different. Some are very simple, such as Iceland. The two sides only need to negotiate tariffs on fish.
But the United States and some EU countries are different. They are always afraid of the rise of China, so as long as they can stop China's development, these countries will do anything they can!
Take the United States as an example. Since China's "resumption of trade relations", the United States has exerted pressure on us as the "leader" of the WTO.
Many Western countries are also watching the excitement and enjoying the benefits brought to them by the United States negotiations.
In a sense, the negotiations between the United States and China represent the negotiations between most countries in the WTO and China.
This process has “tortured” China for a long time!
[5]
During the Sino-US negotiations, the US representatives were interested in more than 6,000 tax numbers exported from China, so they requested that each one be discussed in detail.
This is completely gangster logic. It is true that the United States is an economic power, and it is true that the economy was ahead of China at that time. However, they cannot have more than 6,000 products, all of which are their own strengths.
The United States relies on its own power to prevent the development of any country that may surpass them!
Take the United States and Japan as an example. In the 1980s, the economies of Japan and Germany rose strongly, and Japan's automobile and home appliances and other businesses swept the American market.
This left American companies in the office all day long to think of ways to drive away these foreign companies. However, as time went by, they found that some companies in Germany and Japan were too powerful and could not be stopped at all.
Therefore, for the sake of its own companies, the United States urgently roped in the European Union and other countries and convened the eighth round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. This time, the U.S. government is determined to protect the development of its own companies.
This negotiation lasted for 8 years. At the beginning, there were not so many rules in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. However, this time the number of participating countries jumped to more than 120, and many agreements were also added.
This makes Japanese industry no longer have the power to challenge the United States. However, the biggest impact of this meeting on the world economy is the actual implementation of tariffs. The core of the existence of the organization
is the issue of tariff reduction and . Of course, many of these policies are very beneficial to the United States and the European Union.
But at the same time, for the sake of public opinion, they gave different allocations to developed and developing countries in the amount of tariffs.
Developing countries are weak and want to catch up with world powers. The WTO will allow you to increase tariffs to properly protect your own country's enterprises.
At the same time, the principle of the WTO is that everyone must discuss tariffs together and cannot act alone. Even the country cannot intervene. It is this rule that has become an important obstacle for our country to enter various economic organizations.
You can memorize them in a small notebook for the test later.
In 1994, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was renamed the World Trade Organization. China wants to completely reopen the country before 1994.
Therefore, in the second half of 1994, the Chinese delegation worked at high speed on various issues. At the same time, China made huge concessions on tariffs on 2,522 products.
The tariff bid has dropped from 43.7% to 17%. Seeing China’s sincerity, most countries have reached cooperation with China and agreed to China’s resumption of tariffs.
But the price demanded by the United States was too high, so that the negotiations could not be concluded for a long time. By the end of December, the United States was still "making things difficult", causing China to lose the opportunity to become a founding member of WTO!
The Chinese delegation also returned to China temporarily to prepare for the next negotiation!
Since then, China has changed from resuming customs to joining the WTO!
[Six]
In 1996, Clinton was officially re-elected as the President of the United States. It was not until this time that Sino-US negotiations turned for the better!
Clinton
Compared with the previous lion's mouth in the United States, Clinton's attitude towards China's accession to the WTO has changed greatly this time. The main reason is that the United States urgently needs the Chinese market, and he himself also needs political achievements.
During Clinton's term in office, he created more than 20 million jobs and brought the unemployment rate in the United States to the lowest point in thirty years.
He adheres to the policies of developing foreign trade, opening up the world market, and creating job opportunities, and has won the support and support of the American people.
It can be said that his economic construction of the United States has reached a peak, but Clinton lacks a major diplomatic achievement.
If he can solve the problem of China's accession to the WTO, then he will be extremely great among all previous US presidents.
Clinton
But the U.S. Congress does not agree. At the same time, the vast majority of the American people do not like this kind of free trade. In their view, the freer the trade, the harder it is to keep their jobs.
At this time, the domestic business community in the United States was divided into two groups. One was those that supported China's entry into the WTO, such as Boeing, Motorola, General Motors and other companies.
China's accession to the WTO is in line with their business interests.
Those who strongly oppose China's entry into the WTO are led by the textile industry. They believe that Chinese textiles will cause many textile factories in the United States to close down and countless people to lose their jobs.
So Clinton started a heated discussion in the US Congress!
However, on the other side of the Sino-US negotiations, there is a group of predecessors who are also doing their best for the rise of China.
[Seven]
In July 1998, Shao Chun, chairman of China Securities Company, suddenly received a notice from his secretary:
"There is a Hong Kong boss who wants to invite you to dinner. He said that there is a good project for cooperation."
Shao Chun didn't care at all who the Hong Kong boss was. When he heard the words "good project", he immediately met with the Hong Kong boss as quickly as possible.
And this person is the famous Xu Zengping . When the two met for the first time, Xu Zengping was in a suit and leather shoes, and with the temperament of having been a soldier, he seemed to be an upright person at first glance.
The two didn't chat for long before Xu Zengping revealed his true purpose of coming to Shao Chun. He said that Ukraine now has a scrap aircraft carrier "Varyag" and he had spent 20 million US dollars to buy it. Came down, now on the way back home.
Now the money in his hand is gone, and he is still short of 20 million yuan. The more Xu Zengping talks, the more excited he becomes. He says that this is the only opportunity. Today, China is in urgent need of aircraft carriers.
If the Varyag can be successfully transported back to China and donated to the mainland, this will undoubtedly greatly increase China's influence and status in the world!
When Shao Chun heard this, his heart trembled unconsciously.
I have to say that Xu Zengping has the potential to be a big liar. Under his constant lobbying, Shao Chun finally took money from his own pocket to help Xu Zengping buy an aircraft carrier.
But what no one expected was that this was just the beginning. There was still a long way to go before the Varyag returned home!
That year was 1998. China's annual GDP was US$1.03 trillion, accounting for 3.2% of the world's total, while the United States' annual GDP was US$9.06 trillion, accounting for 28.5% of the world's total.
Don’t worry, China is about to make an impact!
[8]
Let’s return to the negotiations on China’s accession to the WTO.
While China and the United States were undergoing intense negotiations, China's domestic people's income has been significantly increased due to Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening up policies, Hong Kong has returned to the embrace of the motherland, and we have also helped Southeast Asia resolve the economic crisis.
This allows the world to see China's growing international influence, and at the same time, it also allows them to see China's upcoming market!
So by the beginning of 1999, China had reached bilateral cooperation with 35 countries. At this time, only two countries were left, namely the United States and the European Union.
At this time, in order to join the WTO, China made huge concessions in the face of tariffs on many products. At this time, a turning point appeared!
html In April 2017, Chinese representatives visited the United States. Their main purpose this time was to sign a WTO accession agreement. The U.S. industry and commerce also continued to put pressure on the U.S. Congress to agree to China's accession to the WTO as soon as possible.
Otherwise, once China goes back on its word, the preferential policies previously negotiated will be invalidated.
However, when the Chinese delegation formally met with Clinton, he said:
"I'm sorry, I'm afraid we can't sign the agreement immediately!"
Clinton's words not only angered the American business community who had been waiting for a long time, At the same time, it also angered the Chinese delegation. The angry representative directly prepared a ticket to return home.
Once this matter was exposed, the White House also came under pressure from the business community.
In desperation, Clinton called the delegation that night, hoping that the negotiating team could stay in the United States and wait for a few days to resolve the issue before signing.
The angry leader of the delegation replied:
"You Americans go back on your words and show no credibility at all. If you want to sign, you can sign, and if you don't want to sign, you can't. How can this be reasonable? If you really want to talk, then come to Beijing. Let’s talk!”
Then our delegation hung up the phone. Clinton’s reputation in the United States was seriously damaged, and he was condemned by the United States and other countries around the world.
However, what people didn’t expect was that the U.S. delegation flew to China the next day and started negotiations with Chinese representatives. However, in the end, the U.S. side was too ugly and the asking price was too high, so the negotiations failed.
On May 8, 1999, something happened that shocked the world. It also interrupted Sino-US negotiations for several months!
And this incident is also a major reason for helping China rise!
[Nine]
At 5 a.m. Beijing time on May 8, 1999, over the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, an American B-2 bomber fired five precision-guided missiles in succession.
And these 5 missiles were launched in different directions towards the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia!
In this attack, three Chinese journalists were killed on the spot, one of whom was Xinhua News Agency reporter Shao Yunhuan.
The other two were Xu Xinghu and Zhu Ying from "Guangming Daily". They were a couple. At the same time, more than ten people were injured.
According to the memories of the survivors, when they got up from the ground, the place where they once worked had become unrecognizable. On the messy land beside them, his colleagues were lying.
Their clothes were in tatters and covered in blood...
When the news came out, the world was in an uproar. China believed that the United States' behavior was intentional.
Because when NATO wanted to bomb Yugoslavia , peace-loving China voted against it, so the United States dropped these five missiles out of revenge!
The United States, which was the culprit, did not apologize at all. They simply issued a statement saying that the bombing was due to an operational error and the reason was that the US Air Force used an outdated map.
What’s the reason?
You must know that American technology has already reached the point of entering space, landing on the moon, and exploring the universe. Now they say they have made mistakes in modern warfare, and they are really embarrassed.
During this period, Clinton contacted Chinese negotiators many times, saying that this was a misunderstanding and hoping to restart bilateral negotiations between China and the United States.
Clinton
Our representative firmly stated that with Sino-US relations so tense, it is impossible to talk now unless this issue is properly resolved.
Subsequently, public opinion around the world overwhelmed the United States. Seeing the impact on the United States was so great, Clinton was not allowed to apologize.
later made compensation to China and the victims, but no matter what the United States does, the damage they caused can never be made up for.
The negotiations between China and the United States continued until the APEC summit held in New Zealand in September, in view of the fact that the embassy in Yugoslavia received compensation and apologized.
That’s why the negotiations between China and the United States were restarted. It may be that the United States also knew that it was at fault for the bombing of the embassy. This negotiation agreed to China’s unconditional most-favored-nation treatment.
In the end, on November 15, 1999, China and the United States signed a bilateral agreement in Beijing, and the Sino-US bilateral negotiations ended.
Signing scene between China and the United States
After the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, China completely understood that no matter how strong a country's economic strength is, without strong military strength, it can easily be bullied by other countries.
Since then, China's military managers have begun to focus on both sides. In order to prevent such things from happening, our country's scientific researchers have begun to work day and night to strengthen China's military strength.
At the same time, my country's accession to the WTO continues.
However, just when China thought that everything was going smoothly when joining the WTO, the subsequent negotiations between China and the EU encountered difficulties!
Please look forward to the next issue!
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