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China embraces new century
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CHINA, a country with a history of more than fifty centuries, is ready to face the challenges of a new century.
Chinese leaders and economists are fully aware that for China, which has solved the problem of feeding its population of 1.26 billion, the task of becoming an average developed country by the middle of the next century is a formidable one.
In half a century, China's population will hit 1.6 billion, according to the government's population-control plan.
Growing population, decreasing resources, deteriorating environment and structural imbalance are all problems facing China in its rejuvenation bid.
To tackle these problems, China has issued the White Paper on Population, Development for the 21st Century, the first historic guidance on sustainable development.
China also set population-control targets for the next five, ten and fifty years, and stressed the promotion of the family planning policy and low birth rates.
At the turn of the century, China launched the develop-the-west campaign to help the resource-rich region achieve a measure of prosperity.
When the strategy is fully implemented, more than 300 million people can be settled in the west and ecological deterioration will be checked and rooted out, experts noted.
To narrow its gap with the developed countries, China put forward the policy of rejuvenating the country through science and education. The country is set to raise the proportion of high-tech output value in GDP to 30 per cent in a decade.
As its economy is becoming globalized, China is committed to opening more sectors to the outside world, and is encouraging its enterprises to invest abroad.
China's entry into the World Trade Organization will present more and more opportunities and competitions for Chinese businesses.
At the turn of the epoch, China outlined its 10th Five-year Plan, putting economic restructuring on top of the government's agenda for the first five years in the new century.
Observers considered it a significant move for China to remove all obstacles and establish itself as one of the world powers in the future.
China has drawn world attention in its efforts to meet the challenges in the new century, just as Jonathan D Spence, professor from the History Department of Yale University, once commented, if China can tackle all its problems, the 21st century will become “a century of China”. (People's Daily)
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