A History of the Reform and Opening Up of the People’s Republic of China (1978–2021)

Whether from a grand historical view of the 100 years since the founding of the Communist Party of China, or from that of the more than 70 years since the founding of the People’ s Republic of China, the history of contemporary China’ s reform and opening-up, which has been more than 40 years so far (including the two major time periods: the new period of China’ s reform, opening-up and socialist modernization opened by the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CPC in December 1978 and the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics opened by the 18th CPC in November 2012), is nothing less than the most dramatic and colorful chapter, the “ China Story” most worthy of exploration and telling. In the past 40 years, from the beginning of the new era to the new century, and from standing at a new starting point to entering the new era, the CPC has united and led the Chinese people to explore and practice the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, creating earth-shaking miracles.

Qi Pengfei is a Vice Secretary of the Party Committee, Professor, and Doctoral Supervisor at Renmin University of China. He is a member of the 12th Committee of the Chinese People’ s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing. He is also involved in various academic and research organizations, including the Chinese Historians Association and the National Taiwan Research Association. Qi Pengfei specializes in teaching courses on the history of the Communist Party of China, contemporary Chinese history, and modern and contemporary Chinese history. He has contributed to the development of professional textbooks such as An Analysis of Key Issues in A Concise History of Modern China, History of the People’ s Republic of China, and Textbook of the History of the People’ s Republic of China. Zhou Jiabin is an associate professor of Marxism at Renmin University of China.