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On November 16, Chinese Ambassador to Britain, Fu Ying, delivered a speech at the Royal Society, entitled "China and Britain in a Changing World." In the speech, Fu devoted a large space to China's status quo in terms of both economic and social fields, as well as the country's new development. guidelines established at the recent national congress of the Communist Party of China. Excerpts follow:
As Deng Xiaoping remarked, China is both big and small, strong and weak.
It is still very true of today's China.
On the one hand, no economic theory can adequately explain the robust and sustainable growth of China.
This year, China's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to catch up with Germany, reaching the third place in the world.
According to a report of the Korea International Trade Association in 2006, 958 products made in China rank first in the world in terms of global market shares. (Germany, 815; the United States, 678; Italy, 304 and Japan, 280.)
China is also among the few countries that are able to launch space missions.
Many who visited Shanghai agree that China is a developed power. However, we in China tend to see the other side and conclude that China is far from strong.
China's per-capita GDP is only one 18th of that of Britain, ranking behind 100 countries, along with Angola and Ukraine. Of the Quality-of-Life Index issued by The Economist, China ranks 116th among 183 countries and regions. The top three are Norway, Iceland and Australia and Britain is the 17th.
What does China's development mean to the Chinese people?
First, it means significant improvement of living standards.
Per-capita GDP has gone up to $2,000 from $213 in 1978.
Far gone are the days when the biggest preoccupation of the 1 billion people in China was food.
According to the World Wealth Report 2007 issued by the Boston Consulting Group, China's wealth increased by 23.4 percent over the past five years, three times more than the world average. The figure was 31.6 percent in 2006 alone. In the next five years, it is expected to grow by 17.4 percent while the world average is only 5.6 percent.
There are 310,000 families that own $1 million in assets, the fifth in the world (only after the United States, Japan, Britain and Germany). The number is expected to double in 2011.
At the end of September, the capitalization of China's stock market reached $3.33 trillion, ranking fourth in the world. The accounts opened for trading stocks reached 100 million. Thirty million people are actively buying and selling in the market.
According to the Financial Times, China's stock market will be four times larger by 2010.
In 2006 there were 573 publishing houses bringing out 13,000 new books a year.
There are 1,938 newspapers and 9,500 varieties of magazines.
The number of Internet users in China has amounted to 172 million. People send 32 billion text messages a month.
Among the urban dwellers, for every 100 households, there are 153 mobile phones, 47 computers and four cars.
It also means improved democracy and human rights.
"Protection of human rights" and "governance on the basis of rule of law" have been written into the Constitution.
In 2005, 470 million rural residents participated in village-level elections. Eighty percent of villages have their own Charter of Self-Administration.
In 2006 around 2 million deputies were directly elected to people's congresses at county and township levels.
By the end of 2006 there had been 354,000 nongovernmental organizations in China.
There are 85,000 religious sites with over 100 million people practicing religion, mainly Buddhism, Islam and Catholicism, Protestantism etc.
China has also acceded to 22 international conventions on human rights and 24 on labor.
On the New Economics Foundation's Happiness Index, China ranks 31st place among 178 countries and regions. (Britain, 108th and the United States, 150th.)
What does China's development mean to the world?
It means new business opportunities and new growth.
China's foreign trade has grown from 20 billion to $1.76 trillion. China is expected to import $1.2 trillion worth of goods in 2010, making China the second largest importer after the United States.
Foreign direct investment in 2006 was $63 billion, and 480 out of the world's top 500 opened businesses in China.
McDonald's opens one new restaurant every three days.
The World Bank recorded that between 2003 and 2005, China's economic growth contributed to world economic growth by 13.8 percent, second only to the United States. In 2006, China's contribution was 33 percent and this year is estimated at 25 percent, both higher than that of the United States.
It also provides more commodities at lower prices for consumers ranging from the United States, Europe to Africa.
However, the way forward for China is not without challenges.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao once said, "With a population of 1.3 billion, any trivial problem would become intimidating if multiplied by 1.3 billion, and any benefit would become meager if divided by 1.3 billion."
Poverty. If the poverty line is drawn at $1 per day, 135 million people in China, or about one out of 10, still live in poverty.
Regional and urban-rural imbalance. Shanghai's per-capita GDP is 10 times that of the remote southwestern province of Guizhou. In Beijing the average income of urban residents is twice that of its rural residents.
Huge pressure on employment and social security. Ten million new jobs need to be created each year just to keep pace with the growth of the labor force. Only 12 percent of the population enjoys medical insurance and half of the population could not go to the hospital for treatment, mostly for economic reasons.
Lagging education. Every year 1 million children drop out of school because of financial difficulties, 70 percent of whom are girls.
High cost of economic growth. With 5.5 percent of the world's GDP, China is consuming 15 percent of the world's resources. Its per-unit GDP energy cost is 3.5 times that of the United States.
Serious environmental problem. Of the 20 most seriously polluted cities in the world, 16 are found in China. Seventy percent of the rivers are polluted to varying degrees.
Unsustainable growth pattern. Processing trade accounts for half of China's total exports. It is low in profit, high in human cost and resource consumption. A Barbie doll is sold for $9.9, out of which the Chinese factory gets only 35 cents for processing. China has to export 800 million shirts in order to buy one Boeing plane.
Core messages from the Party Congress
First, China will continue to go down the road of reform and opening up.
Reform is vital to the destiny of China.
China' target is to quadruple the per-capita GDP of the year 2000 by 2020 to reach $3,500 (equivalent to the level of Bulgaria today). By then China's GDP will exceed $4.5 trillion, more than Japan's. To achieve the target, the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China laid out a comprehensive program of development under the slogan of what we call Scientific Outlook on Development. It mainly means a more balanced approach and sustainable growth.
For example, there is emphasis on innovation and greater contribution of scientific and technological advancement to economic growth, and on promoting international cooperation in science and technology. The purpose is to increase the higher value-added production.
There is emphasis on technologies for conserving energy and reducing emissions, to strengthen the capacity to tackle climate change.
There is also emphasis on human-centered policies and more funds for social security development.
The second message is that China will continue to pursue the path of peaceful development.
China can only develop in a peaceful international environment.
China's foreign trade dependency ratio in 2006 was 64 percent, higher than any other major country.
Exports by foreign-invested enterprises account for over 60 percent of the total exports. Foreign trade and FDI contribute 25 percent and 6 percent respectively to China's economic growth.
China imports 45 percent of its need for crude oil, 50 percent of iron ore, and 60 percent of copper. Every year 35 million Chinese travel abroad and China receives 124 million international visitors.
The interdependence between China and the world is significant and the world also benefits from its links with China.
Chinese President Hu Jintao used the word "common" 13 times in the four-page part on foreign policy when he delivered the report to the 17th Party Congress. The central theme is to work with all countries in the world to maintain peace, and in return to contribute to peace and stability of the world by keeping China stable and growing.
China will be a good host of the 2008 Olympic Games. The theme is Green Olympics, Hi-tech Olympics and People's Olympics.
Twenty-seven of the 37 stadiums and gyms have been completed. Over 700,000 volunteers have signed up. We are expecting 105,000 athletes, 20,000 referees, 30,000 journalists and 250,000 staff from 203 countries.
Viewers are expected to exceed 7 million person/times. It will be the largest sports event in the Olympic history.
China-UK relations
In 2004, the two countries established a comprehensive strategic partnership. Under this framework we have instituted and developed extensive dialogues and cooperation.
For example, we have political strategic dialogue, financial dialogue, trade and economic dialogue, sustainability dialogue, disarmament dialogue etc. We even have construction dialogue.
I was often told that many people here believe that no major issue in today's world could be solved without the involvement of China. This is a highly complimentary view of China's role, which we ourselves are yet to fully comprehend. But the British interest in coordinating with China on international issues is certainly well appreciated by our side and there is much enthusiasm in expanding trade and economic ties on both sides.
China-UK trade has been growing at a comfortable pace of 20 percent annually and was valued at $30 billion in 2006. The first half of this year witnessed almost 30-percent increase in trade year on year. British investment in China leads that of all EU countries with 5,580 UK-invested projects operating in China with about $27 billion of investment.
However, set against the general pattern of growth of China's international economic relations, Britain does not rank among the top. You are taking only 1.5 percent of China's market share and we account for 3.5 percent of UK trade.
Given the size of the two economies and immense potential that exists, there is certainly room for doing even better. | 
