New priorities set in China's
11th Five-Year Guidelines are crucial to China's sustainable
development and provide a foundation for future good
Chinese-European relations, said a top European politician on
Tuesday.
"I am so satisfied to see that China now has decided to focus
more on social justice and social security," Poul Nyrup Rasmussen,
president of the Party of European Socialists (PES), told
Xinhua.
"That is quite, quite crucial and quite fundamental for ensuring
a balanced and sustainable development in China."
He said he was impressed by China's new five-year plan, which
aims to narrow the gap between cities and rural areas, to
redistribute growth between the coastal east and the inner part of
the country, to give priority to social justice and to give new
weight to environmental protection.
Rasmussen and his PES colleagues were briefed on China's new
development plan by a delegation of the Communist Party of China on
Monday. PES is the second largest party group in the European
Parliament.
"It is wise of them (Chinese leaders) now to give this priority.
I hope they can do it. It would really demand new decisions in
China in the next five years and certainly it is interesting to
follow," he said.
He admitted that the rapid development of China poses new
challenges to Europe whose labor markets are far less flexible.
But he argued that Europe should not lower its social standards
to fend off the challenges from China or any other emerging markets
in the world.
"We would not accept a race to the bottom. We would not accept
social dumping in Europe. We would not accept competition among
states in Europe," he said.
In addition, both China's and Europe's social security systems
need reforms, Rasmussen argued.
"China must increase its social protection and we must modernize
our social protection," he said.
"If we do that, then I see a win-win situation, where China can
continue its high economic growth, redistribute its growth to
social justice, and we in Europe can gain by selling more of our
modern products to China."
Rasmussen said Europe needs to invest to enable people to move
from old jobs to new ones so that the continent can still maintain
its competitive edge even when China has the advantage of cheap
labor.
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"Europe should not compete on salaries. Europe should compete on
qualifications," he said.
But investment in education and training cannot be done without
having a welfare state, he argued.
Experiences of the Scandinavian countries, which are typical
welfare states, show that modern social security can be reconciled
with high competitiveness and flexibility.
He said the implementation of China's new policies is an
"enormous job."
"It's not going to be easy, but I think you have a fair chance,"
he said.
The politician said his colleagues and he had "very concrete,
very open, very frank discussions" with the Chinese delegation on
wide-ranging issues.
"We confirmed our long-term vision for strategic partnership on
scientific, on cultural, on research, and on economic basis in our
mutual interests."
He said Europe and China have some common visions. "We don't
want a unilateral world. We don't want a unipolar world. We want a
multi-polar world and a multi-lateral world."
Europe must increase its cooperation and dialogues with China as
China is the world's fourth largest economy and a political
heavyweight, said Rasmussen.
Europe does not see China as a threat either militarily or in
terms of trade, he said.
"We see China as a big political, economic power. But we don't
see signs of aggressiveness, and signs of not respecting
international law."
Europe and China can disagree on some questions, he said. "What
is really crucial here is that China respects United Nations
fundamental rules; China is a member of the Security Council; China
has not been aggressive to its neighbors; and China is a part of
the global economy."
On trade, he said Europe should continue to open up markets.
"When it comes to trade, I think we have to be careful but not
prohibitive," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 22, 2006)
