China's gradual evolutionary approach has been very constructive

Comments on Christine Wong “China: How far across the river?” 26/08/2011, http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2011/08/20/china-how-far-across-the-river/

I think the article by Zhao Boying, China's Road, is revealing in terms of China's gradual evolutionary reforms and development, in many areas.

While there was a broad consensus for reforms in the early days of reforms, China did not have a big bang design of reforms. It was one step at a time and some times there were back and forth, reflecting the fundamental guiding line of "touching stones to cross the river".

Inevitably, there were many unexpected results and outcomes that needed fixing. Government finance and services have not been exceptions.

Also, to get the whole system reformed/changed, the idea of allowing some to get rich first, seemed to also have a regional dimension as well as people dimension

China's reforming process is far from over and will be a long one. The gradual evolutionary approach has had its shortcomings, but has also achieved huge successes, especially compared to the former USSR and many eastern European countries.

If China can continue this evolutionary approach, but at the same time recognise the fact that as reforms proceed further and further, more experiences are accumulated and also where and how to get to the end point is becoming clearer and clearer, more systematic designs may be possible and could be implemented.