“Today, the Chinese people can say with complete pride that the second revolution of China, the reform and opening up, has not only profoundly changed China, but also profoundly affected the world!” said the keynote speech of President Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia this year. A profound summary of the magnificent epic of China’s 40-year reform and opening up. The heavyweight reforms at the two sessions this year also declared the determination that the reform should not stop and start again. They firmly told people that to carry out the reform is the best commemoration of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up.
When we look back in the past forty years, we look forward to the future. At this moment, under the background of the community of human destiny in the new era, we need to understand the context, focus on the future, and point the way for the thinking and upgrading of the new era of the Chinese textile industry.
The continuous and rapid development of China's economic construction has created the most important demand and the most fundamental driving force for the great development of China's textile industry.
Starting from the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in 1978, the work center of the whole party gradually shifted to the modernization construction centered on economic construction.
The four decades of practice, social productivity, comprehensive national strength, people’s living standards, and China’s international status have greatly increased, fully demonstrating the great achievements of reform and opening up, and fully demonstrating that holding high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and taking the road to socialism with Chinese characteristics is a realization The Only Way to the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation .
Forty years of reform and opening up have fundamentally changed China. In 1978, China’s total economic output accounted for 1.8% of the ball. Today, China is the second largest economy in the world, with total economic output accounting for 14.8% of the world's total.
In 1978, China’s per capita GDP was only US$384. This year, China’s per capita GDP will reach US$9281, which means that China has entered a middle-income country.
Forty years of reform and opening up with economic construction as the center and a socialist market economy as the target model have made China the world’s largest textile producer, consumer, and exporter. The reform and opening up has enabled the textile industry to achieve high-speed development in terms of productivity quality, industrial scale structure, and industrial competitiveness. China's textile industry has adopted large-scale advanced technology on a large scale and its independent innovation capability has achieved significant development. This has benefited from the entrepreneurial and innovative vitality brought about by reform and opening up. It has also benefited from the increasing prosperity and improvement of the domestic market. It also benefited from China’s independent and peaceful foreign policy and its continuous expansion of its opening up policy, so that the textile industry can seize it. With rare international opportunities, the textile industry gave fuller play to human resources advantages, industrial structure advantages, attracted large-scale advanced technology and advanced management experience, used domestic and international resources, and opened up domestic and international markets, achieving great successes.
In 1978, the textile industry achieved a total industrial output value of 47.32 billion yuan, accounting for 11.2% of the country's total. The total profit and tax amounted to 10.96 billion yuan, accounting for 12% of the country's total industrial output. The export value was 2.154 billion US dollars, accounting for 22.1% of the country's total. In 2017, the main business income of textile enterprises above designated size reached 6893.565 billion yuan, which was 145.67 times that of 1978. It accounted for 5.9% of the industries above designated size in the country; in 2017, the export of textiles and garments was 274.51 billion US dollars, which was 127.4 times that of 1978, accounting for the entire country. The proportion of total exports was 12.13%, accounting for 36.8% of the total global textile and apparel trade. The net foreign exchange earned by the entire industry was 241.9 billion US dollars, accounting for 57.3% of the country's total.
The reform and opening up has opened the world's largest domestic market for the Chinese textile industry. In 1978, China’s per capita fiber consumption was only 2.9 kg, which was 38% of the world average. In 2015, it exceeded 20 kg. The quantity and structure of fiber consumption are gradually approaching that of medium-developed countries. In 2016, the per capita clothing expenditure of urban and rural residents in China reached 1,739 and 575.4 yuan, 16.7 times and 17.4 times higher than in 1985 respectively.
At present, China's textile industry still has its own historical mission: it solves the employment problem of more than 20 million people across the country, and is a pillar industry for China’s foreign exchange earnings through exports. As a traditional pillar industry of the national economy, an important national production industry and an international competitive advantage are obvious. The industry has played an important role in attracting employment in the booming market, increasing the income of farmers, accelerating the process of urbanization, and promoting the harmonious development of society.