Learning curve: A puzzle then; now a matter of course

I remember that on the first anniversary of China Daily, on June 1, 1982, the paper's Opinion Page carried a short letter from Willbur Schramm, the then director-emeritus of the Institute of Communication Research, Stanford University; and the East-West Communication Institute, East-West Center, in Hawaii.

Schramm said China Daily's potential readers would include "the millions outside China who cannot read the People's Daily and other official publications in Chinese, but nevertheless want to hear the voice and feel the pulse of China if they can".

"This group is hard to reach because it is so widely scattered, hard to serve because it holds diverse ideas of the path a China paper should walk between information and persuasion. Yet it may be potentially the most important audience to which the daily might seek to expand its future years."

The professor didn't say what people this group would include. But a front-page lead that had appeared just three weeks earlier, on May 7, 1982, indicated who they might be. The headline reads: PRC likely to seek out overseas investment.

The bulk of the story was based on a talk given by Ji Chongwei, a senior economic official, upon his announcement of a newly established Foreign Investment Administration Committee under the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade (now part of Ministry of Commerce).

That was the time when the paper was an eight-page black-and-white product. I had just joined the staff, freshly graduated from college after receiving "re-education" on farms during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). Things were only beginning to change. But I was not clear what overseas investment was and why it was so important as to deserve to be a front-page lead.

Most young staff members like me, even though we had majored in English, had never heard of the expression "mergers and acquisitions".

Soon enough, changes taught me that overseas investment was an indispensable driving force in China's modernization. But change was hard, as many foreign business people complained of difficulties. To make a profit would be a great trial of patience.

Negotiations could drag on for months, if not years. It was not until the early years of the 1990s when the concept of market economy was written into China's top-level official document. Foreigners' equity in a Chinese company was an issue subject to the universal standards of law, and no longer politically sensitive.

What followed was a golden time. China remained a leading recipient of foreign direct investment for over two decades. In return, the country witnessed the most rapid growth in GDP and in foreign trade.

Mergers and acquisitions, as a matter of course, became a daily phenomenon between Chinese and foreign companies.

In 2016, the country is moving rapidly toward a balance between inbound and outbound direct investments. In the first quarter of 2016, China was the largest M&A player in the world.

The writer is editor-at-large of China Daily.