Manage world's rising expectations
- Source: Global Times
- [01:41 January 29 2010]
- Comments
"Manage the Earth, and let it hear our voice." Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong's famous words in the 1950s have inspired generations of Chinese to pursue the modernization dream. As Mao said, China should do its best to exceed the Western countries in 50 to 60 years.
Yet when China is likely to overtake Japan as the world's second largest economy this year, it finds itself in a situation of having to "manage" the world's rising expectations.
This is a big challenge.
The world has been expecting more from China, especially since the financial crisis. But between the increasingly high expectations and China's real capabilities, there is a huge gap, which is evident in the 2010 World Economic Forum that opened Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland.
At the forum attended by about 2,500 leaders from over 90 countries and regions, China is expected by many to purchase Greek bonds, to continue holding US treasury bills, and to lead global recovery while under the onslaught of protectionism.
Even those who are blaming China's monetary and trade policies for causing tensions in the post-crisis period expect that China should save the world's economy.
Though such expectations may boost national pride among a section of Chinese, there is a strong case for China to remain clear-headed about the reality it is facing.
On the one hand, it is an emerging economy, with its 8.7 percent GDP growth in 2009 and its soaring middle class population.
On the other hand, it remains a developing nation, with its per capita GDP ranked 106th and over 100 million people below the World Bank indicated poverty line.
The world's expectations, unless cautiously managed by China, could jeopardize the hard-earned fruits of labor accumulated in the past six decades.
Some of the expectations may stem from the mounting skepticism toward Western capitalism, reinforced by the financial crisis; others may be due to ignorance of conditions in China; but, bulk of the expectations are created and driven by some Western countries to serve their own interests.
