This year, China has been on public international display like no other time since the communists took power in 1949. Beijing hosted the Olympic and para-Olympic Games and 2008 is the thirtieth anniversary of China's open door economic policy reforms launched under Deng Xiaoping. The technical and organisational success of the Olympics will come to symbolise the transformational success of these policies. China today is unrecognisable from what it was before 'the door was opened'.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 8 October, Dr Geoff Raby, the Australian Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, examined the questions: How much has China really changed? Is China a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same?

This year, China has been on public international display like no other time since the communists took power in 1949. Beijing hosted the Olympic and para-Olympic Games and 2008 is the thirtieth anniversary of China's open door economic policy reforms launched under Deng Xiaoping. The technical and organisational success of the Olympics will come to symbolise the transformational success of these policies. China today is unrecognisable from what it was before 'the door was opened'.<br><br>At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 8 October, Dr Geoff Raby, the Australian Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, examined the questions: How much has China really changed? Is China a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same?

Event audio and podcasts from the Lowy Institute

<p>Event audio and podcasts from the Lowy Institute</p>

Lowy Institute Archive

This year, China has been on public international…