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China: More progress, more ‘opening up’
By Zhang Junsai
October 1 marked the 62nd anniversary
of the founding of the
People’s Republic of China. In
those years, and especially over the past
33 years since its reform and opening up,
China has awed the world with stunning
development. China’s development has
attracted increasing international attention.
How do we view China’s development?
In the past 62 years, more than 200 million
Chinese have been lifted out of poverty.
And 1.3 billion Chinese now have enough
to eat. In the past 33 years, China’s annual
economic growth reached 9.9 percent.
China’s GDP totaled US$5.88 trillion in
2010, making us the world’s second largest
economy. We top the world in the
number of cars produced and sold, as well
as in Internet and cell phone users.
Some believe that with the U.S. and
Europe entrenched in the sovereign debt
crisis and a lack of economic driving force,
China will soon catch up with the West.
This view fails to see China as it is. As
our reform and opening up deepens and
our economy and society develop, China’s
future is ever more interconnected with
that of the world. The U.S. and European
debt crisis have harmed their own economies.
They also show that world economic
recovery is still unstable and uncertain.
China is not an outsider in the volatile
global economy. We also face a number
of major challenges. With a population
of 1.3 billion people, our GDP per capita
is US$4,000, ranking 100th internationally,
which is less than one-tenth that of
Canada and even less than that of many
African countries. Based on UN standards,
150 million Chinese — nearly five times
Canada’s total population — still live in
poverty on less than $1 a day. And 10 million
Chinese have no access to electricity.
China needs to provide 24 million jobs
each year. China still suffers from a weak
economic foundation, uneven rural, urban
and regional development, unreasonable
industrial mix and insufficient productivity.
We may be a big country in terms of
population but we are a small country in
terms of economic size per capita. China’s
reality matches our status as a developing
country.
China’s economic and social challenges
are perhaps the toughest nut to crack. We
have no reason to be arrogant. It takes
generations to achieve greater prosperity
and to improve the Chinese people’s
livelihood. Even when China’s GDP per
capita approximates that of developed
economies, our economy performance and
quality of living will still be far behind.
Is China’s development sustainable?
The answer is yes. No country can avoid
“growing pains.” Just as a train that had
been running at high speed for 30 years
would wear out, the problems in our fast
development are natural. It is unwise to
put China’s future path in doubt simply
because of these challenges. China is still
in the middle stage of industrialization
and accelerating phase of urbanization.
This means China is still in great need of
infrastructural investment. In the next 20
years, we need to help more than 300 million
rural migrants relocate in the cities;
upgrade people’s consumption mix from
food and clothing to moderate prosperity;
and reduce the development gap between
eastern and western China. Therefore, the
Chinese economy does not lack power
or potential. We have every reason to be
optimistic.
China has formulated and is implementing
its twelfth five-year plan, which
calls for faster economic growth mode
transformation. The plan features economic
growth model innovation, social
development and further reform and
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