On Thursday, Beijing commemorated the milestone with much fanfare. President Hu Jintao officiated at a gathering at the Great Hall of the People and delivered a speech pledging efforts to continue Deng’s policies with new resolve to fight against corruption, and to scale new heights toward building a prosperous and harmonious society. In China, the third plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, held in Beijing on Dec. 18, 1978, was a historic day because it endorsed Deng’s bold “reform and opening” to bid goodbye to Mao Zedong’s class struggle and isolationism that had pushed the country to the brink of economic and political collapse. Deng, purged three times by Mao as the No. 1 revisionist and capitalist roader, started his experiments on market economy at a time when the mainland’s per capita gross domestic product was barely US$150. His pragmatism of “crossing the river by feeling for the stones” has proved to be one of the world’s greatest economic success stories.

In the first 30 years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Mao launched a series of political campaigns, starting from the anti-rightist movement in 1956 to the Great Leap Forward in 1959, and culminated in the disastrous Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. These disastrous campaigns made the mainland an impoverished pariah state.

His death in 1976 left a demoralized, campaign-weary people longing for change. Nobody was able to deliver the country from the danger of destruction except Deng, the purged revisionist and capitalist roader. The 1978 party meeting gave the green light to his reform and opening policies that served to release the long-suppressed potential of the people. The results were the longest sustained high-speed economic growth in the world.

In 2007, China’s GDP per capita climbed to 18,934 yuan, or US$2,700, compared to US$150 three decades ago. This year, the size of China’s economy is expected to surpass Germany’s to become the world’s third largest, after the United States and Japan. In a decade, according to estimates, China’s GDP will be the world’s second largest. At the present growth rate, China’s economy would double in size every seven years. Hu Jintao said Thursday that since 1978, China has drawn foreign direct investment close to US$1 trillion. Now the world is asking the question: How long will the boom last? The answer seems less than optimistic.

This is exactly the challenge faced by Beijing, whose export-driven economy is starting to show signs of a slowdown, due to the global financial tsunami. With America, China’s largest export market, entering recession, the mainland’s economic engine is losing steam. Factory closures in booming towns are creating severe social problems for Beijing. Last month, Beijing announced a stimulus plan featuring infrastructure projects totaling US$580 billion to create jobs.

The era of China’s breakneck growth appears over. From now on, China will have to live with moderate growth and tackle a daunting array of problems stemming from the economic downturn.