“No country that wishes to become developed today can pursue closed door policies. We have tasted this bitter experience, and our ancestors have tasted it. In the early Ming Dynasty in the reign of Yongle when Zheng He sailed the Western Ocean, our country was open. After Yongle died, the dynasty went into decline. China was invaded. Counting from the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the Opium Wars, through 300 years of isolation China was made poor, and became backward and mired in darkness and ignorance. No open door is not an option.”
-Deng Xiaoping
1984 speech to the Communist Party’s Central Advisory Commission
