On behalf of Bloomberg, I would like to thank the organizers for your invitation to discuss the extraordinary development of China over the past 70 years.China’s growth has truly been remarkable. China’s economy has moved from poverty to moderate prosperity, from isolation to a position as the world’s biggest exporter, from emergence in innovation to its leading edge. Average incomes have risen from $721 a year in 1980 to $16,097 in 2018 - growth that has lifted millions out of poverty.The next 70 years can be just as bright. Continued reform and opening of the Chinese economy, the adoption of new technologies and the introduction of more market forces will help further improve living standards. But of course along the way there will also be plenty of challenges.Every country’s circumstances are unique. There has never in history been a country with as large a population as China’s that’s undergone as rapid an economic transformation.As China has opened its borders to international participation, Bloomberg has been on the ground to witness the opening and transformation. We began in mainland China about 20 years ago with a single journalist based in Shanghai. Today, Bloomberg employs a few hundred professionals people in Beijing and Shanghai, working for various departments, including data, sales, and research and editorial. Our newsroom staff in those two cities have also expanded significantly.The scope of our coverage has changed as well. What started with one reporter covering all of China has become a much more focused and specialized team that’s able to provide a more granular and holistic view of this country’s various markets, industries, and its many opportunities and challenges. The pace and size of china’s financial markets really requires on the ground resources to uncover and report - so global investors can understand the nuances of investing in China and its many complex challenges.Let me give you an example.The electrification of the automobile is a trend that is posing severe challenges for carmakers and energy companies around the world, but one that is also creating tremendous opportunities. Bloomberg has a global team of journalists that has made electric cars a focus of coverage, including in China where we have multiple colleagues tracking this industry. In addition, BloombergNEF has a team of analysts in Beijing dedicated to understanding and forecasting everything from demand for new-energy vehicles to price points for batteries.As a result, Bloomberg was first to point out how China’s massive battery-production capacity would help dramatically lower the price of electric vehicles, making them affordable to a much larger percentage of consumers around the world. We have also been first to identify and to profile some of the cutting-edge Chinese startups that are reshaping the auto industry with their electric vehicles.Bloomberg’s ability to use data and objective reporting to enlighten markets and policies did not happen by accident.In 1802, Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers of the American system of government, wrote: “We might hope to see the finances of the Union as clear and intelligible as a merchant’s books, so that every member of Congress and every man of any mind in the Union should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses, and consequently to control them.”Jefferson’s comments could well serve as a guiding principle behind the creation by Michael Bloomberg of his eponymous financial industry service 200 years later. From the beginning, Michael Bloomberg understood the truth that shining a light on the dark places of finance creates a variety of virtuous outcomes. Add the power and speed of computers and you have an extraordinarily powerful tool for making investments.In addition, the growth we have had in China did not happen just because Bloomberg wanted it to. It is a reflection of the changing relationship China has with global markets.Bloomberg today is the global leader in financial data, information and analytics. Our customers around the world use the Bloomberg Terminal’s wealth of data and news as a window to understand China. And every day, through their decisions about what they read and watch, those people tell us they want to better understand China.China has made solid progress in the liberalization of financial market. The latest milestone is the inclusion of Chinese government and policy bank bonds to the Bloomberg Barclays’ Global Aggregate Index. JP Morgan has also announced a plan to start a phased inclusion of Chinese government bonds into its benchmark index next February. More recently China has set timetables to end foreign financial ownership caps. All these are good news.We at Bloomberg have learned time and again that efficient financial markets are a building block of sustainable development and that they require transparency. Bloomberg, in all its forms, provides that transparency to financial markets.As China continues to accelerate market opening up and integration with global markets, enhancing transparency and communication will become even more important. As foreign investors move in, they will want to see more transparency on policy and data. Without it, they will be cautious, stay out, or demand a larger risk premium.Transparency comes in many forms. Here are two that Bloomberg has identified as integral to our standing as an essential resource for the global financial and business community:The firstis Transparency on policy - that doesn’t mean policymakers sharing all their internal debates, but it does mean providing clarity to the markets, many times through the financial press, on what is actually going on.The second is transparency of data - economic and corporate data have to be comprehensive, timely, and most important, accurate.The more information that markets have, the more efficient and effective they are at allocating resources. Likewise, as the Chinese economy continues to open, the more information that’s available, the more smoothly China’s integration with global markets will go.As Bloomberg Chairman Peter Grauer said recently at the China Development Forum, our company has “learned that open, transparent markets provide the best support for economies against instability and financial shocks.”“Ultimately,” he said, “the shift in financing toward more diversified funding sources, a greater role of open markets and clear-headed assessment of risks and returns can drive more efficient capital allocation.”Our experience in the U.S. and around the world is that transparency in the form of an objective and data-driven press is an essential underpinning of trustworthy markets.The pursuit of objectivity and transparency is one Bloomberg has undertaken every day since our company’s founding in 1981. During that time, we’ve also had the privilege of observing many changes in how information is distributed and some of the issues that have arisen. I wanted to share two noteworthy examples from our experience.The first is about the fairness of information disclosures. In the 1990s, Bloomberg News used real-time and historical data to track and write about unusual movements in stock prices in companies for which there was no apparent news to cause the price movements. Eventually we learned these companies were giving analysts and investors access to material information on a selective basis, including briefings by the chief executive. The Securities and Exchange Commission eventually responded with Regulation FD, or Fair Disclosure, which stipulated that all companies must make material information available equally to all shareholders.The second is about the fine balance between ensuring market stability and the importance of transparency. In 2011, Bloomberg News published a story and spreadsheet detailing $1.2 trillion in undisclosed loans that the U.S. Federal Reserve gave to financial institutions during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. The data that drove that story was only turned over to us after we won a lawsuit filed against the Federal Reserve. In our view, providing information about these loans was not only important because it gave transparency to taxpayers, but also because it would increase our understanding of the crisis and its aftermath, and possibly help prevent a reoccurrence.China has already made strides in increasing transparency and we applaud the ongoing efforts of policy makers to encourage even greater information disclosures. Timely disclosure of information, with clear road-maps and timelines, helps build market confidence and allows international businesses to plan for the future. As this country continues to grow and its impact on the world becomes ever greater, the need for communication and transparency will only increase. Data and information that are timely and trusted will be integral to a brighter economic future for China and also the world at large.