SCIO press conference on 'China's Epic Journey from Poverty to Prosperity' white paper
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E-mail China.org.cn, September 30, 2021
China Daily:
As the world's second-largest economy, China is one of the major drivers of global economy. Last year, China was the only major economy in the world to register positive economic growth. Today, when and if the world economy will rebound remains unclear. Against this backdrop, what does it mean for the world that China has built a moderately prosperous society in all respect? What new development opportunities will it bring to the world economy?
Ning Jizhe:
I will take these questions. China has achieved moderate prosperity in all respects, which means as the world's most populated country and the largest developing country, China's economy is strong and the people's well-being has been improved. That in itself is a significant contribution to the world's peace and development. Meanwhile, achieving moderate prosperity in all respects in China has not only fueled and provided opportunities to the world's economic resurgence, but also contributed Chinese wisdom and strength to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. China's development needs the world, and the world's development also needs China.
First, China's realization of moderate prosperity in all respects has made an impressive contribution to global poverty alleviation. As Mr. Xu introduced just now, since reform and opening up, 770 million poor rural people have been lifted out of poverty, accounting for over 70% of the world total during the same period. In 2020, the problem of extreme poverty in the country has also ended. China realized its poverty reduction goal from the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule. More than 1.4 billion Chinese people have started a new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country, which will be an unprecedented transformation and also a monumental event in human history. In recent years, the number of people living in poverty around the world has not fallen but increased, and the global cause of poverty reduction fell on hard times. Against this background, China's achievement has dramatically reduced the number of poor people in the world, giving confidence and power to the global cause of poverty reduction.
Second, China completion in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects has fueled economic growth and recovery all over the world. China had made the biggest contributions to global economic growth for 15 years straight starting from 2006, and its average contribution rate exceeded 30% for many years, which enables the country to be the major driver for global economic growth. In 2020, with its GDP exceeding 100 trillion yuan, China overcame the influence of the COVID-19 and became the only major power to deliver positive growth. In the first half of this year, China's economy increased by 12.7% year-on-year, which makes the country not only the major driver for global economic and trade recovery, but also allows it to play a positive role in stabilizing the global supply system. Over the past year or so, China has supplied hundreds of billions of masks, and hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to the world, supporting the fighting against the epidemic in various countries.
Third, China's realization of moderate prosperity in all respects has brought great opportunities for the economic development of the entire world. At present, China is the second largest consumer market and largest goods trading power in the world, leading the world in terms of foreign capital utilization and outbound investment. Now that China is accelerating the fostering of a double development dynamic, with the domestic economy and international engagement reinforce each other, and the former as the mainstay, China is bursting out potentiality in the market and opening its door wider and wider. This is presenting the world with a broader market, greater cooperative opportunities and larger space to grow. By our estimation, over the next five years, China will import goods of more than $10 trillion and make direct investment worth of over $550 billion to other countries and regions, which will greatly bolster the global economic stabilization, recovery and continuous development.
Finally, China's realization of moderate prosperity in all respects has opened up new ways for developing countries' pursuit of modernization. After more than seven decades of construction and development including over four decades of reform and opening up, China has achieved a tremendous transformation by raising the living standards of its people from bare subsistence to general prosperity. We have gone from a poor and backward country to the world's second largest economic power. We have gone from standing upright to becoming prosperous and growing in strength. In this process, we created the twin miracles of fast economic growth and long-running social stability, which do not only bring concrete benefits to the Chinese people, but also improve the state of the world. Since 2019, China's per capita GDP has exceeded by $10,000, which means almost 3 billion people in the world now enjoy per capita GDP exceeding $10,000 because of the 1.4 billion Chinese people joining and doubling the number. This is undoubtedly an enormous boon for the development of human society. The vivid practice of China's building a moderately prosperous society in all respects presents various countries and nations which would like to speed up development and remain independent with a brand-new choice. Thanks.
Chen Wenjun:
Thank you to all speakers and friends from the media. Today's briefing is hereby concluded. Goodbye!
Translated and edited by Zhang Liying, Wang Qian, Gong Yingchun, Yang Xi, Zhang Jiaqi, Wang Yiming, Li Xiao, Zhang Rui, Wang Mengru, He Shan, Zhou Jing, Wang Zhiyong, Duan Yaying, Liu Sitong, Xiang Bin, Chen Xia, Cui Can, Huang Shan, Wang Yanfang, Li Huiru, David Ball, Jay Birbeck, and Tom Arnstein. In case of any discrepancy between the English and Chinese texts, the Chinese version is deemed to prevail.
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