2010-09-22 14:43

CHINA IS A DEVELOPING COUNTRY

Despite its remarkable achievements and rapid growth, China is still a developing countries, a conclusion backed by the internationally recognized standards.

Second-quarter GDP figures from Tokyo showed that China has overtaken Japan as the second largest economy in terms of total economic output, a position unprecedented in China's modern history.

However, according to international consensus, it is the per capita levels that count in rating a country as a developed or developing one.

Based on nominal gross national income (GNI) per capita, the World Bank classifies economies into four categories: high income, upper middle income, lower middle income and low income.

With a nominal GNI per capita at some $3,800, China ranked beyond the top 100 and fell short of the 3,946 dollar threshold for the upper middle income group.

Noting that China "has scored amazing economic success for the past three decades," World Bank President Robert Zoellick told Xinhua ahead of his September 9-15 visit to China that many need to "recognize China's conditions of being a developing country" that faces a wide range of challenges.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also gauges economies by average figures rather than total volumes. In its authoritative World Economic Outlook 2010, China is listed as an emerging and developing economy, and Japan a developed economy. In terms of economic output per capita, one Japanese equals 10 Chinese, and one American 12.

China fundamentally is a developing economy, and many of its vast rural areas are still poor, Nigel Chalk, the IMF's lead economist on China, told Xinhua earlier this month following his latest tour to China.

In its Human Development Report 2009, the UN Development Programe ranked China the 92nd among 182 countries and regions it surveyed on the basis of the human development index, which covers life expectancy, adult literacy rate, enrollment rate and GDP per capita.

Only per capita income is the standard to assess a country's economic maturity, said Joseph Nye, a Harvard University professor who initiated the concept of "soft power."

"The achievements China has made during recent years are not enough to change the nature of China. In a fairly long period, China will still be a developing country," Gao Qiufu, a senior expert with Xinhua on international affairs, said in January.