In 2009, China attracted attention from media outlets across the world for its performance in economic, cultural, political and diplomatic areas as well as for its positive image. A U.S. media monitoring group recognized China's rise as an economic power as the top world news story of the past decade. The number of hits on the topic on the Internet was 400 percent higher than the runner-up, the Iraq War.

Economy

"Some people once thought that China's ambition to guarantee an economic growth rate of 8 percent in 2009 was a pipe dream, but the country has reached its goal"

A year ago, many people considered China's ambition to guarantee an economic growth rate of 8 percent a pipe dream, but the country has succeeded in realizing its ambition, the U.S.-based newsmagazine Time said in a recent article. The magazine noted China maintained the highest growth rate among the world's major economies, strongly spurring economic development in other countries.

"China's economy is for real. It's time for the rest of the world to stop waiting for it to halt or collapse and start preparing for it to grow more rapidly and more robustly than any country has in quite some time," the U.S.-based magazine Forbes said.

"It's time to prepare for a world where China assumes an ever larger place, rather than treating current data like a short-term phenomenon that will pass (as Japan's did in the 1980s) and leave the United States once again the sole economic giant bestriding the world. That script is the past; China is the present, and the future," it said in an article titled "China's Growth Is Real."

The article pointed out that the driving force behind China's economic growth comes from large-scale construction and infrastructure projects launched by China's Central Government and local governments, as well as the notable rebound in its exports.

Culture

"Chinese culture will gain popularity worldwide, boosting the country's 'soft' power."

In 2009, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visited five European countries and attended the Europalia China Art Festival as well as China's guest-of-honor activities at the Frankfurt Book Fair. On October 14, 2009, the newspaper China Press USA carried an article titled "China Stages a 'Cultural Parade' to Showcase Its Soft Power," saying that the vice president's tour indicated China's intention to conduct "cultural diplomacy."

China's participation in the Frankfurt Book Fair as the guest of honor for the first time undoubtedly served as an opportunity to showcase its glamorous culture, the article said. China's proactive stance toward "going global" demonstrated that the country had become more confident about its culture and that its 'soft power' was on the rise.

Since 2009, China has introduced sweeping reforms to its cultural system. It has established a number of large publishing and media groups, giving them the mission of competing for a voice in the international community. In addition, the Shanghai World Expo will open in May 2010 and last for six months. It is therefore foreseeable that China will launch a series of events in 2010 to promote its culture worldwide, thus greatly enhancing its soft power.

Politics

"China is not only becoming more powerful economically, but also starting to exert its political power more responsibly."

China is not only becoming ever more powerful economically, but also starting to exert its political power more responsibly, Forbes said in an article titled "Yes, China Has Fully Arrived as a Superpower." It has taken a leading role among the Group of 20 major economies in helping push for effective responses to the world financial crisis because it is crucial to the world economy, it said.

In a report headlined "The Time for Waiting Is Over: China Has Taken Its Great Political Leap Forward," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Hugh White, a professor of strategic studies at Australian National University, as saying: "Until now it has been possible to say that China's economy has been growing but its political power has been lagging behind. Not anymore - 2009 has been the year in which China's growing political power has become an inescapable fact of international politics."

Economically, China has notably played an important role in world affairs since the outbreak of the financial crisis, White said, adding that the West largely welcomed and encouraged its role.

Diplomacy

"The frequent visits by top Chinese leaders were rarely seen in the past, and the Chinese Government's people-centered diplomacy is not empty talk."

The year 2009 was eventful for China's diplomacy, Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao newspaper said in an article titled "China's People-Centered Diplomacy Is Not Empty Talk in 2009." The number of countries the nine members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China - the country's top leaders--visited and the frequency of their visits had been rarely seen in the past.

For example, President Hu Jintao attended the G20 Summit in London in April. In June, he took part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia, where he also met with Brazilian, Russian and Indian leaders. He also paid state visits to Russia and Slovakia. In November, he visited Malaysia and Singapore and attended the Economic Leaders Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation froum in Malaysia. On December 15, the Chinese president completed a visit to two Central Asian countries.

Premier Wen Jiabao visited four European countries and EU headquarters in January, and paid an official visit to North Korea in October. In November, he visited Egypt and attended the opening ceremony of the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. In December, he attended the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Chinese Government's theory of "people-centered diplomacy" is not empty talk, Lianhe Zaobao said. China's embassies in foreign countries, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its leaders made their voices heard when saving Chinese hostages in Iraq, evacuating Chinese citizens from Tonga, and rescuing Chinese engineers kidnapped in Pakistan and Chinese workers taken hostage in Ethiopia. The protective naval escort fleet from China deployed off the coast of Somalia was further proof of the Chinese Government's efforts to handle foreign affairs for the people.

Image

"Chinese workers were nominated as Time magazine's Person of the Year 2009, because their hard work is leading the world economy to recovery."

Time selected U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as its Person of the Year 2009 in its December 16, 2009 edition. In the meantime, China's workers as an entity, together with Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Jamaican sprint champion Usain Bolt, were nominated as runners-up.

Time explained its selection of China's workers by saying that China's success in maintaining an 8-percent GDP growth rate in 2009 was first of all attributed to the thousands of workers who had left their hometowns to work in prosperous coastal cities. These men and women, with "their struggles in the past, their thoughts on the present and their eyes on the future," are leading the world to economic recovery.