Despite becoming the world’s No. 2 economy, China yesterday said it is still a developing country, reflecting its reluctance to take on new obligations on climate change and other issues.
Beijing needs to improve life for millions of impoverished Chinese, said Yao Jian (姚堅), a spokesman for the Chinese commerce ministry.
It was the government’s first public reaction to news on Monday that China surpassed Japan in economic output in the April-to-June quarter, confirming its arrival as a global commercial power.
“China is a developing country,” Yao said. “The quality of China’s economic development still needs to be raised. It needs more effort to improve economic quality and people’s lives.”
Rapid growth has boosted the communist government’s political and economic influence abroad, but Beijing has resisted adopting binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions or making commitments in other areas such as easing controversial currency controls or guaranteeing foreign suppliers equal treatment in government purchasing.
China overtook Japan after Tokyo reported quarterly GDP of US$1.286 trillion, behind China’s US$1.335 trillion reported earlier.
With a population of 1.3 billion, China ranks among the poorest countries per person, with an average income of US$3,600 last year, compared with Japan’s US$37,800.
The Chinese government is in the midst of a marathon effort to spread prosperity from its thriving eastern cities to the poor countryside and west. Communist leaders are trying to diffuse tensions over a huge wealth gap between an elite who have benefited most from three decades of reform and the poor majority.
China has more than 40 million people living below its official poverty line, Yao said.
“We should care not only about the gross domestic product data but also about per capita GDP,” Yao said at a regular news briefing.
Xinhua news agency stressed that theme yesterday, issuing a dispatch that cited a French economist as saying China is still a developing country.
China’s rapid growth has produced striking contradictions. It has the world’s second-largest military budget and has launched two manned space missions, but many families live on a few thousand dollars a year.
Beijing has amassed foreign reserves of US$2.5 trillion and state-owned companies are major investors in mines and oilfields abroad. The government has become a major presence in the G20 major economies but says it speaks for poor countries at the World Bank and other international bodies.
China’s growth also has fueled strains abroad over its surging energy demands and environmental impact.
Its surging oil and gas imports have prompted surging Chinese demand helped to push up global crude prices. The issue is sensitive for the government, which angrily rejected an International Energy Agency report last month that China passed the US last year as the biggest energy consumer.
China is also the world’s biggest source of greenhouse gases blamed for changing the climate. Beijing has promised to restrain growth of emissions but has refused to adopt binding limits while calling on the US and other industrialized countries to cut their own output.
The ministry also reported yesterday that foreign direct investment (FDI) in China accelerated last month, rising 29.2 percent over a year earlier.
Investment last month totaled US$6.9 billion and the growth rate was up from the 20.7 percent recorded in the first seven months of the year, Yao said.
“Foreign direct investment showed a continued recovery. It was a pretty good performance,” Yao told reporters.
FDI includes spending on factories, real estate and other assets but excludes investment in stocks and other financial instruments.
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