Photo

Premier Wen expounds 'real China' at UN debate

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-09-24 08:09

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao addresses the 65th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, September 23, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

UNITED NATIONS - China remains a developing country and will stick to the path of peaceful development for the common good of mankind, Premier Wen Jiabao said here Thursday.

"This is the real China," he said in a speech titled "Getting to Know the Real China" before world leaders and delegates at the annual general debate of the UN General Assembly.

China remains a developing country

While taking pride from the rapid growth and remarkable achievements over the past 30 years, "we are clear-headed about our place and role in today's world," Wen said.

Related readings:  China will never waiver on sovereignty issues  Wen puts forward proposals for closer China-US ties  China to improve financial services in rural areas  Wen: China will honor MDG commitment to reduce poverty

Although China's gross domestic product is the third largest in the world, the per capita figure is only one tenth of that of developed countries, he noted.

China is a leading producer of many important products, but remains at the lower end of the global industrial chain; China is a big trading nation, but its exports are low in technology content and in added value, Wen said.

China's coastal areas and some of the big and medium-sized cities thrive in modernization, but many places in the central and western regions and the vast rural areas are still rather backward, he said, noting that 150 million people in China are still living below the poverty line set by the United Nations.

In addition, more efforts are needed before China establishes full-fledged social security and legal systems and eradicate inequity, corruption and other social ills, Wen said.

"Taken as a whole, China is still in the primary stage of socialism and remains a developing country," he concluded, adding that the country's further development faces constraints of energy, resources and the environment.

"These are our basic national conditions. This is the real China," Wen said.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao address the 65th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 23, 2010.  [Photo/Agencies]

China sticks to reform and opening-up

In order to realize the strategic goal of basically achieving modernization by the middle of this century, China will forge ahead in the coming decades with the already 32-year-old basic policy of reform and opening-up, the Chinese premier said.

The guideline "has benefited people across the country" and "there is no reason whatsoever for us to deviate from it," Wen said.

Terming development as Beijing's "top priority," he said China's progressing industrialization and urbanization will draw hundreds of millions of farmers into towns and cities and thus "create more domestic demand than ever."

The trend will "open up broad market and development space and serve as a powerful engine sustaining the growth of the Chinese economy and the world economy at large," Wen continued.

Meanwhile, China will be "even more open to the world" and adhere to the long-term strategy of practicing with other countries "mutually beneficial cooperation for win-win progress," he said.

Commenting on international finance and trade, the Chinese premier stressed that his country is "against protectionism in all its manifestations."

"We are committed to promoting the establishment of a fair, equitable, inclusive and well-managed new international financial order and an open and free international trading regime," he said.

China will also continue to deepen institutional reform, boost education, science and technology and promote its fine culture in order to improve peoples' well-being in an all-around way, he said.