FOREWORD

Zhou Shuchun, member of the standing committee of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC and publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily

周树春：第十三届全国政协常委，中国日报社社长兼总编辑

China is a sleeping lion. Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will move the world. These famous words are attributed to Napoleon, reportedly when pointing to China on a map.

How prophetic they were and how true they ring, albeit a couple of centuries later.

On March 27, 2014, delivering a speech at the meeting commemorating the 50thanniversary of the establishment of China-France diplomatic relations in Paris, Chinese President Xi Jinping said: “Now China the lion has awakened, but it is a peaceful, amicable and civilized lion.”

The inspiration for the title of this book, The Sleeping Giant

Awakes,is from there.

In the past century, the Chinese were toiling and moiling for world peace and development. Particularly, when China decided to embark on reform and opening-up in 1978, the sleeping giant finally awoke. For the next 40 years, it has been on the road to great rejuvenation and a rich future.

In the four decades of reform and opening-up, China's transformation has been nothing short of miraculous. In 1978, its economy was only 367.9 billion yuan; in 2017, gross domestic product (nominal) had reached 82.71 trillion yuan (equivalent to$12.2 trillion), as the world's second-largest economy. The proportion of China in the global economy rose from 1.8 percent in 1978 to 16 percent in 2017, second only to the United States. Such a sea change in such a short period is unprecedented in human history.

At the same time, reform and opening-up opened the doors to the Chinese, giving people access to the outside and boosting interaction with the rest of the world. At the beginning of reforms, China urgently needed talents in foreign languages and international journalism to better integrate into the international community. It was at that time I joined the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Languages (now Shanghai International Studies University). I set my mind on devoting my life to tell the China Story and contribute to international communication. Like me, almost every Chinese can tell a story of how his or her life changed dramatically in the wave of reform and opening-up.

To celebrate this historic moment of the 40thanniversary of reform and opening-up, China Daily's communication-led think tank China Watch and Guangdong People's Publishing House jointly publish this book:The Sleeping Giant Awakes—Global Views on China's Transformation after Four Decades of Reform and Opening-Up(bilingual edition).

The book is divided into four chapters: “Progress”, “Challenges”,“Opportunities” and “Anecdotes”. It reviews the contribution of China's reform and opening-up to global development and explores the challenges and major opportunities facing China's reform and opening-up process in the next stage. Especially, the “Anecdotes” chapter aims to familiarize readers with untold details of China's reform and opening-up by sharing personal stories and anecdotes of international celebrities.

In the nearly one-year production process, the China Watch team made full use of its overseas resources and invited around 40 world-renowned politicians, entrepreneurs, and scholars to write for the book.

Among them are Stephen Roach, Yale University senior research fellow, Edmund Phelps, Nobel laureate in economics, Dominic Barton, global managing partner at McKinsey & Co, and Yohei Sasakawa, chairman of the Nippon Foundation.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to the prominent authors of our book. The star-studded lineup garnered great attention to the book even before its formal launch. At the Frankfurt Book Fair in early October 2018, when the book was promoted under the theme of China's Reform and Opening-Up and World Development, it attracted wide praise and much anticipation internationally.

It is an honor to work on this book with Guangdong People's Publishing House. As a forerunner of reform and opening-up,we believe that Guangdong Province has inherent potential to play an important leading role in the reform and opening-up in new era.

Besides, I would like to extend my thanks to the editing team of China Watch for this book. Powered by China Daily's core strength as the national flagship of international communication, China Watch is a communication-led think tank, acting as a top-notch conduit for timely, detailed and thought-provoking research on China-related issues. It is designed to become a network of thinkers in the world.

Within a year after it was set, around 1,000 high-quality pieces and three preview policy reports covering the China-EU Summit, the China-Africa Forum and the G20 Summit have been published by China Watch, setting the stage for a product line of such reports.

In addition to celebrating the achievements of the past 40 years, long-term and ambitious goals have been set. Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out that China will deepen reform in an allround way and implement reforms to the end. China's door will open wider to the world.

We sincerely hope that this book will not only let readers understand the 40 years of China's reform and opening-up in greater perspective, but also give them inspiration to actively participate in the new wave of reforms with greater enthusiasm.

We believe that in the new era, China's reform and opening-up will certainly create more opportunities for global development and open up new space for cooperation among countries around the world.