Big Tasks Lie Ahead for China: Official

China has been saddled with rarely-seen domestic challenges to its social and economic progress, said a top government official on Monday.

"Our population is 300 million more than the total population of the 60 richest countries in the world," said Li Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

"This shows how challenging it is for us to achieve common prosperity," Li told the opening of the China-Europe High-level Political Parties Forum attended by more than 50 European party leaders.

Though China has experienced rapid economic expansion during the past decades, about 100 million people still live in poverty by United Nations standards, Li said. China's per-capita wealth ranked about No. 100, though it is already the world's third biggest economy behind the US and Japan.

However, Li said his country has gained valuable experience and charted a path tailored to China's conditions. Even after the financial crisis, which plagued the world in 2008, China stepped up with countermeasures and its economy grew 8.7 percent in 2009.

Li said China contributed to lifting the world out of financial turbulence but he cautioned that the global economic climate is still rather complicated.

He said the financial crisis taught China to transform its pattern of development, which depends heavily on export and investment.

"We are determined to realize a sustainable and ecological civilization when phasing out the old pattern. The rest of the world will, as it did during past decades, benefit from the opportunities brought by the transformation," said Li.

Reinhard Butikofer, vice-chair of the Group of Greens in the European Parliament, said both developing and rich countries need to change the "growth model."

"We are at the eve of a new industrial revolution the concept of an ecological civilization China has promoted can lead us to that direction," Butikofer said.

Wang Jiarui, minister of the international department of the CPC Central Committee, urged China and Europe to "surpass the ideological barriers" and deepen mutual understanding, while admitting that differences are unavoidable.

"Nobody in this world can solve the global problems alone and so long as we respect each other, we can promote a healthy relationship," said Wang.

Adrian Severin, vice-chair of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, said China has been ready to talk with the rest of the world when finding solutions to global challenges.

Citing that the birth of the European Union is proof that Europe is learning from mistakes such as conflicts and wars, Severin said that when defining its development path, "China can learn from our mistakes."

(China Daily May 25, 2010)