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'Unique' China defies world's predictions
By Xu Binglan (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-06-21 08:32

(Continued)

China Daily: How is today's China different from the one you saw seven years ago?

Huang: China has become a very large domestic economy, a truly continental economy. We did not highlight that as much as we could have. But it is very important. It is very clear that China is the only other so-called continental economy like the US. Where the source of growth is increasingly domestically determined by its own investment, its own consumption. External events no longer cause as much as a ripple in it.

Seven years ago, trade balance accounted for 25 per cent of China's growth rate. Today it accounts for nothing.

This is unique, only China and the US have this characteristic. (The European Union can been seen as a continental economy as a whole, but any single economy remains dependent on the external market).

A worker at a clothing factory in east China's Jiangsu Province makes garments for exports. China's textile and garments exports reached over US$32 billion in the first four months in 2004, a growth of 21.46%. [newsphoto]

Seven years ago, even during the Asian financial crisis, people worried about foreign demand, foreign investment, foreign trade and whether it will affect China. Today, there is more concern about domestic investment, domestic production, domestic growth.

We observe poverty issues and it is also very different today. The issue is actually becoming less a poverty issue in the sense of the thinking seven years ago, and more what I would call the inequality issue.

The incomes of the rural poor have been increasing by 4 per cent a year for 10 years. That is not actually bad by international standards. It is actually quite high.

However, urban incomes have been increasing by 8 per cent a year for 10 years.

So the issue is really more social. Social complication and stress on society. It is very difficult to deal with perceptions about equal access.

When the inequality gets large enough, people become less concerned with whether or not they have basic necessities. They become more concerned with perceptions of equal opportunities or how fast their lives improve.

Seven years ago, people were concerned with 'Do I have enough clothes, enough food, is there a school in my neighbourhood?' And now people are concerned with 'What is the quality of my school, can I purchase broader variety of food products, can I find a higher paying job, can I move to a different place to get better opportunities?'

Seven years ago, people were concerned about getting opportunities from where they were. Now they are increasingly asking 'Can I move somewhere else, from the countryside to the city or from this province to another province? And if I am trained properly, can I compete for better jobs and how do I compete?

So I think the issue has also changed from what I would call dealing with basic necessities to dealing with equal opportunities. I think this is a fundamental change in the thinking of the Chinese people. And the government has to find different ways to deal with this kind of question.

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