Uncertainty over the escalating US-China trade war has become a major factor affecting global growth . Some worry that it might lead to “one world, two systems” in the future. Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers has also warned that the US may be in the early stages of a cold war with China. However, China probably understands better than any country that closing itself off is not an option. Reform and opening up are the fundamentals of its economic success. China’s rapid development over the past seven decades or so has proved that. But what exactly has China achieved so far? The National Bureau of Statistics recently revealed a slew of data and information for the first time that sheds some light on that question. First, China’s GDP per capita had risen to US$9,732 by the end of last year, from around US$54 in 1952 – a 180-fold increase. China was probably one of the world’s poorest countries at the time. During the same period, US GDP per capita increased from US$2,349, or 44 times China’s, to US$62,606, just 6.4 times China’s. In terms of its share of global GDP, China’s economy now makes up 16 per cent of the world total, from a mere 1.8 per cent in 1952. Additionally, China’s population has grown from 575 million in 1952 to nearly 1.4 billion at the end of 2018, an increase of 140 per cent in 66 years. Second, China has gone from being a predominantly agricultural economy to the world’s factory and beyond, with 27 per cent of global manufacturing value added. In 1952, a large part of China’s population struggled to feed themselves and starvation was common. Then, the agricultural value added accounted for 50.5 per cent of the country’s GDP, with farmers making up 83.5 per cent of the workforce. A significant transformation took place from 1978 to 2018. Agriculture as a share of GDP had plunged to 7.2 per cent by the end of 2018. As a proportion of the workforce, agriculture made up just 26.1 per cent, compared to 27.6 per cent for the industrial sector and 46.3 per cent for the services sector. In comparison, only 1 per cent of total US employment is in the agricultural sector. The figure is just 3 per cent for the European Union. By 2010, according to the World Bank, China’s manufacturing value added had became the largest in the world, and by 2017, accounted for 27 per cent of the global total. Third, the urbanisation rate has risen from 11 per cent to 60 per cent, with potential upside of another 20 percentage points. The rate grew steadily, from 10.9 per cent in 1952, to 17.9 per cent in 1978, but accelerated after that to reach the high last year. According to the National Development and Reform Commission, each percentage point increase in the urbanisation rate corresponds to the migration of 14 million people. Despite the substantial increase in the urbanisation rate over the past four decades, China still needs a big portion of its population to migrate to urban areas to transform into a developed economy. In developed economies, the urbanisation rate is about 80 per cent on average, meaning China still has a way to go to catch up. The race to narrow the gap will generate enormous business opportunities in the coming decades. Lastly, great strides have been made in business ownership, and in sectors important to the economy such as trade, research and development, education, health care and housing. The real reason for China’s rapid economic rise (it isn’t state control) Private companies have grown in importance in China’s economic development. Contrary to the Western portrayal of China as a socialist economy, many sectors have seen a significant decline in state ownership and this trend is expected to continue. China had almost no private enterprise in 1978, when it began its economic reforms but, by the end of 2018, private companies were contributing more than half of the national tax revenue, making up more than 60 per cent of GDP, fixed asset investment, and outbound direct investment, and generating more than 80 per cent of urban jobs. Last year, China’s R&D expenditure reached 2.18 per cent of GDP, or 1.97 trillion yuan (US$280 billion), exceeding that of the EU. According to the latest Global Innovation Index, published by World Intellectual Property Organisation, China’s R&D spending is the second largest in the world, and contributed to 31 per cent of global spending in 2017. Obviously, this has helped to accumulate a large pool of knowledge and technical know-how, necessary for upgrading China’s economic development. The standard of living for Chinese people has also improved dramatically, especially in health care, education and housing. The average life expectancy, which was only 35 when the People’s Republic was established, has improved to 77. The infant mortality rate has dropped from 200 per thousand to 6.1 per thousand in the same period. And the illiteracy rate has also dramatically improved – from 80 per cent to 5 per cent. Clearly, China’s economic accomplishments speak for themselves. “Seek truth from facts,” Deng Xiaoping , the architect of China's economic reforms, once said. The wealth of data reflects China’s robust economic development over the years and points to the country’s future direction and pattern of growth. Despite intensified trade tensions with the US and China’s economic growth slowing to just over 6 per cent in the second quarter, the nation remains on track to become the world’s largest economy by 2030 , according to the International Monetary Fund. Looking at what China has accomplished in the past 70 years, especially over the past four decades, the signs of strength for its long-term prospects are very evident. G. Bin Zhao is a senior economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers China and he also leads the firm’s China Strategic Research. The opinions expressed here are the author’s own