When I visited Sweden in 1979, I met a Malaysian Chinese in a square, and he asked in very jerky Chinese, "Are you Chinese?" I said yes, he was very excited, and said that he finally saw the Chinese, and it was not easy to meet the Chinese in Sweden. Now, the whole world is full of Chinese. Last time I was in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, I looked out from the city hall and half of the square was full of Chinese. Without Comrade Deng Xiaoping's guidance to our party in making the historic policy decision of reform and opening up, it would have been inconceivable that our country would have achieved today's development achievements.

——Speech on the Inspection of Work in Guangdong (December 7-11, 2012)

Further reading:

From the situation of Chinese overseas, we can construct a perspective of observing China from the world. Before the reform and opening up, Chinese rarely went overseas, so there was a question of "are you Chinese?" Before the reform and opening up, there was still a tide of smuggling in Guangdong, and some people tried every means to run out. Zhongying Street in Shenzhen is clearly divided on both sides, with small villas on the Hong Kong side and uneven dilapidated houses on the Shenzhen side. These details reflect the relatively backward state of China's economic and social development at that time.

"Are you Chinese?" In 1979, the world knew so little about China, and so much isolation from the rest of the world. But it was in this year that China's reform and opening up entered the first year of sailing. It is precisely for this reason that some overseas scholars believe that "the 21st century of mankind began in 1978 in China". More than 30 years later, China and the world have moved from estrangement to deep integration, the number of Chinese outbound tourists has grown rapidly, in 2015 the number of outbound tourists reached 120 million, overseas consumption reached 1.5 trillion yuan, to 2016 has become the world's largest outbound tourism consumer for four consecutive years, contributing an average of more than 13% to global tourism revenue. It is precisely in the context of China becoming the world's second largest economy and China's great strides going out that there is a grand situation of "half the square is full of Chinese" in Brussels.

More details confirm the influence of China's going out. In Paris, France, in order to attract Chinese tourists, the Paris Bureau of Commerce and Industry and the regional tourism bureau issued a practical manual to teach French people to speak simple Chinese and help them understand the preferences of Chinese tourists. In Seoul, South Korea, Chinese advertisements can be seen everywhere in the airport, and the clerks of many shops can speak simple Chinese to attract Chinese tourists.

After the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping chose Guangdong, the pioneer of reform and opening up, on his first trip to Beijing. During this visit, he recounted what he saw and heard during his visit abroad, and opened a window with a detailed comparison, so that the impact of China's development on the world can be clearly seen. From the beginning of the reform and opening up, when Chinese were rarely seen abroad, to the "half of the square is full of Chinese" in Brussels more than 30 years after the reform and opening up, the grand narrative of China's development is reduced to these vivid details, which can touch people's hearts even more.

Xi Jinping's personal experience explains the global impact of China's development, and it is precisely to explain that adhering to China's path and promoting reform and opening up have made China the world's second largest economy, created the "Chinese miracle" and "Chinese story" that have attracted worldwide attention, and made the world feel "China's touch" and "China's shock". He often emphasized that "reform and opening up is a great awakening in the history of our party, and it is precisely this great awakening that has given birth to great creations from theory to practice in the new period." Standing at a new starting point, China will unswervingly follow this correct path, and must take new measures and reach a new level.