Imports were relied on for capital and technology, and a growth strategy of government direction coupled with dependency on exports as the engine of growth was adopted. This can be seen as essentially similar to the growth model chosen by the four Asian dragons including Korea.
3/6  As a result China has been able to maintain outstanding growth averaging over 9% a year from the end of the 1970s until the present day. The scale of its external trade has risen from 25th in the world ranking at the end of the 1970s to stand third in 2004, trailing only the United States and Germany.