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Abstract: During China’s history, there were two times of opening borders, but they are completely different. This passage generally contrasts their backgrounds, reasons and different results.

Part I First Opening Borders

In ancient times, many poets would like to regard the dragon as a symbol of China. In Chinese’s philosophy, the dragon is the strongest creature and a giant, which can do everything, even that which is beyond people’s imagination.

Indeed, China, which used to receive other nation’s tributes, was one of the strongest giants in the world nearly one thousand years ago. However, it is almost a truism that an empire will fall from the peak of its prosperity. From the Ming Dynasty onward, the empires refused to communicate with other nations. There were several reasons, one of which was that they feared foreigners, especially the Japanese would endanger their reign. The other reason was that they thought China had the ability to produce everything it needed and therefore there was no need to trade. They were too blind to see the trend that capitalism would replace feudalism and form a new world. At the same time as China was inebriated with the exterior prosperity, the western countries and Japan spared no effort to develop new technology and new cultures to adjust to a new system. The Industrial Revolution greatly improved their productivity and China quickly fell behind them.

As we all know, capitalism is a system that always seeks for new markets and resources. Inevitably, China changed into colony of some western countries and Japan, as China was almost a heaven in capitalists’ eyes because it had abundant resources and great marketing potential. So sharp-sighted capitalists didn’t hesitate a minute to suborn their kings and queens to open the door of China with military power. At this time, China’s imperial government declared opium trading illegal and punished those who bought and sold opium. Indubitably, this offered an excellent excuse and opportunity for the kings and queens. So they declared war with China at once, first Britain, then France, then other nations. China, was defeated by modern arms, and was forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) and the British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue (1843). After that, China gradually became a land of colonies. Other nations threatened China with modern arms to gain more wealth. Cannons, cheap textile and Cross opened Chinese closed doors gradually.

These were the general background and reasons why China first opened its borders. It had the following impacts:

Ⅰ China was exploited endlessly by western countries. As a result, China gradually became their colony. It lost countless treasures.

Ⅱ Most of the Chinese lived under a cruel condition. The trade with foreigners brought limited wealth to Chinese.

Ⅲ The conflict between the Chinese and invaders became the most aculeate, replacing the conflict between dominator and dumb millions.

IV Christianity was popular among some certain classes.

V It also accelerates the collapse of feudalism.

Part II The Second Opening Borders

China won the independence after it drove out the invaders. However, it wandered on the developing path because it couldn’t find a suitable way to develop itself. On one hand, it feared that western countries might threaten the new socialist country. On the other hand, it was not conscious of itself and the world and ignored the necessity of connecting with others. Instead, it adopted a way of constructing itself. Then, when some Asian countries were developing quickly with help investments by western countries, a disaster: the Cultural Revolution, happened, this ancient land. This big mistake let some intelligent people look back the way that China had experienced and considered any other practical ways. Then a giant who was only 1 point 62 meters tall stood at the key point of history, declaring that China need to open its borders to foreigners. His name was Deng Xiaoping, a man as great as Chairman Mao in this century. He analyzed the circumstance all around the world and criticized the idea that China had no need to communicate with others. We generally think an important conference in 1978 marked the beginning of China’s opening borders. First, China opened some cities along the coastline. Then, it opened all the cities along coastline. At last, all land around China opened to foreigners. Our policy welcomed the investment and encouraged the culture communication. Hundreds of thousands of investors rushed to this land which is, after all, the world largest market. China doesn’t let them regret and China also gets tremendous benefits from this measure. This old and mysterious land seized the last precious opportunity in 20^th century, refreshing again and receiving spectacular harvests. Humiliations that China suffered before were washed away. This time of opening borders can be regarded as another revolution that has taken place in China without the sacrifice of blood and lives. But it is even a bigger challenge for us, as it requires great courage and exertion.

This time China has the following harvests:

I China quickly developed into a leading world economy and is influencing every part of the world.

II Chinese benefit a lot from this. The foreign companies provide them huge numbers of jobs；Chinese have the chance to buy productions from all over the world and be exposed to the world’s most advanced technology and the newest fashions.

III China learns a lot from other cultures and this helps China to become a more modern world.

Part III Conclusion

We can see that the two times of opening borders have quite a lot of differences. They happened at different time. The first was forced to open; the latter was not. But the most important of all, they have different results.