No subject

offers a broad market for other countries and has created many
employment opportunities.

Voices from the international community have stated that "developed
countries have shifted their high-cost production to China; and
thereby reduced productions costs. Consumers around the world are
then sharing in this benefit."

-"The so-called China threat theory, in such an era of globalization,
is entirely false. China has never taken job opportunities from rich
developed countries. Its employment growth in the export sector is
due to the expansion of transnational corporation subsidiaries in
China. China's demand for foreign goods is also supporting employment
opportunities in other countries of the world." -"The rise of China
is not a threat. On the contrary, many countries and multinational
companies benefit from China's development." -"China is the true
driving force for the world's economic development."


Second: cultural opportunities

Today's Chinese people should seek foreign, advanced science and
technology and cultural achievements with an open mind. However, we
understand that China's growing economic strength has created the
conditions for widespread radiation of the Chinese culture. The
extensive and profound Chinese civilization may revive at this stage
and exert its influence.

An era of developing economic globalization and the daily convergence
of people in the international community are not only conducive to
China; but also to global cultural diversity, peace, and development.
As a culture with a long history and profound foundation, Chinese
culture has its own distinct characteristics and elements which are
necessary for the harmonious development of mankind; but are not
easily found in Western culture. These elements provide ideological
inspiration and cultural nourishment to human progress. This is not
only the wealth of history, but also of the present and future. This
is China's wealth, and will also become the wealth of mankind.


Third: the opportunity for peace

Indeed, the Chinese people have a dream of rejuvenating the nation.
However, this rejuvenation is not sought by means of world hegemony,
aggression and expansion; but rather with complete freedom from
poverty and backwardness, by relying on the Chinese people's
diligence and wisdom. This rejuvenation will make China a prosperous,
powerful, democratic, civilized and harmonious modern socialist
country that will make a greater contribution to peace and human
development.

China has made a solemn commitment to the world: taking the road of
peaceful development. This will bring a new paradigm to the history
of international relations and prove that mankind can set aside
brutal wars of aggression; handle contradictions and conflicts among
countries by rational and peaceful means; and achieve a win-win
situation among countries.

The development and rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will certainly
safeguard world peace; and promote the multi-polarization and
democratization of international relations to serve the interests of
the international community.

China's development brings global opportunities. Just like American
economist Stephen Roach said, "China is not a threat, but an example
that other countries should learn from."



Chinese Communist Party determined to break shackles on minds
10:42, October 20, 2007
Source: Xinhua

When Zhou Baosheng gave up his much-coveted job at a state-owned
fertilizer plant and took up farming in 1979, his dream for a better
life was still confined to his barren home village in the backwater
of central China's Hubei Province.

A doggerel depicted the Guanqiao villagers before China's reform and
opening up as "living in adobe houses, fed with stale grain, making
50 yuan (6.4 U.S. dollars) a year and swapping firewood for salt."

Zhou became the village head and contracted the collectively owned
cropland to each family. That year the village with only 50 families
harvested a record 175,000 kg of grain.

When the villagers were celebrating, Zhou took a bolder step.

Starting from 1981, he contracted a coal mine, a brick yard and at
least 10 other plants that were to fuel local economic growth for 12
years to come.

The booming new technologies of the early 1990s convinced Zhou to
draw more professionals from across the country. His Tianye Group, 
a high-tech conglomerate, offered 700,000 yuan (90,000 U.S. dollars) 
a year to a leading scientist, 100 times the annual income of most 
wage earners at that time.

Today, Guanqiao villagers make a per capita annual income of 12, 000
yuan (1,540 U.S. dollars) a year, more than three times the national
average of 3,587 yuan (460 U.S. dollars) for Chinese farmers.

"MAGIC INSTRUMENT"

Zhou attributed his success to China's overall policy of reform and
opening up.

The delegate to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of
China has his own interpretation of Hu Jintao's report.

"Hu outlined a blueprint for China's development from now to 2020. 
In an agricultural country like China, we cannot fulfill these goals
without rural development and the well-being of the 900 million
peasants," he said. "It's important to help the peasants open up
their minds, as their creativity has been confined for several
thousand years."

In his report to the Party Congress, Hu said emancipation of mind is
"a magic instrument" and reform and opening up is "a strong driving
force" for developing socialism with Chinese characteristics. He put
"emancipation of mind" in the theme of the congress.

Sources close to the senior CPC leadership said more than 80 experts
and scholars from universities, research institutes and other
think-tanks were invited to the Zhongnanhai leadership compound, a
place otherwise off-limits to commoners, in the past five years.

Observers said it shows Party leaders themselves are gradually
abandoning traditional ways of thinking. Emancipation of mind, put
forth by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, has played a leading
role in China's miraculous growth in the past 29 years of reform and
development, said Zhao Zhongshe, Party chief of Danzhou city in
China's southernmost Hainan Province.

Deng, who died in 1997, was the chief architect of China's reform by
freeing some coastal areas from the shackles of conventional ways of
thinking and development in the late 1970s, allowing them to get rich
first and ultimately lead to the whole nation towards prosperity.

Today, Deng's heritage, passed on by his successors Jiang Zemin and
Hu Jintao, has turned China from a backwater economy to the world's
fourth largest.

"Sometimes all you need is to turn around, and take a different
angle," said Tong Zhiwu, Party chief in Jinzhou city of northeastern
Liaoning Province.

Growth was sluggish for centuries in Jinzhou, only 25 kilometers from
the Bohai Sea but locked by mountains on all sides. The opening of
the landmark Bohai Avenue in 2004 and two tunnel roads leading to the
sea have linked the inland city with booming coastal cities of Dalian
and Yingkou.

"The nearest seaport is now 15 minutes away, and several businesses
from Japan and the Republic of Korea are considering making an
investment in Jinzhou," said Tong.

OPENING WIDER

The pace of China's opening is amazing, said one delegate as he
recalled the 12th Party Congress held in 1982.

"Everything about the congress was top secret. When a delegate
returned from Beijing to his central China home, his colleagues dared
not even openly celebrate -- they stealthily locked up in their
office compound to beat drums and gongs."

Today, the 17th Party Congress is broadcast live and group
discussions at 34 of all the 38 delegations open to journalists.

Until a decade ago, topics concerning rights, democracy and even
environment protection were considered "capitalist ideology", said
delegate Zhang Zhijun, who works to promote the Party's international
exchanges.

Even the air quality report, launched in 1997, was controversial
because some held it was not conducive to social stability. "Today,
we're free to openly discuss the environment, rights and any
defects," said Zhang. Delegate Zhao Zhongshe pointed to areas where
conventional ways of thinking still hamper balanced growth.

"Some officials still take GDP as the only gauge of their
performances," he said. "Plus the pressure from the masses -- of
course everyone is happy when you build them more infrastructure and
bring in more investment."

Yet the consequence of unplanned development is like a chronic
disease, Zhao warned. "Everyone agrees the growth pattern should be
transformed from GDP worship to a more sustainable, balanced and
environment-friendly means of development. But to do that we need
further structural reforms."

Under the current system, nearly all projects need to go through
complex administrative procedures, often at more than one government
bodies, he said.

"A methane project in a remote China village, for example, needs
approval by the National Development and Reform Commission and
Ministry of Agriculture and very often, fund from the poverty
reduction authorities," said Zhao, who calls for more decision-
making power at local governments.

His point was echoed by Chen Haibo, a leading treasury official in
Hainan Province.

"The treasury should not be the sole decision-maker in the
approximation of fund -- the applicants must have a say in
budgeting," he said. "We should spend more on work that addresses 
the concerns of the ordinary people."

When all eyes are on the planned new leadership lineup at the ongoing
Party Congress, most people also expect the five-yearly gathering to
put forth some innovative guidelines for China's future development,
"particularly on structural reforms in the political sectors," Hu
Shuli, managing editor of China's best-selling financial magazine,
Caijing, wrote in an opinion piece.

"China's reform in the political sector lags behind the economic
sector, a result of its complexity and subtlety," she wrote.
"Besides, some unwanted misunderstanding and concerns also stagnate
its process."