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| China's past and future through an overseas perspective |
| CCTV.COM 2003-03-06 10:03:32 |
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The Congress has not only caught nationwide attention, but is also generating much interest among the diplomatic community, overseas correspondents and China watchers. How have they viewed China's image over the past few years？ And what's their assessment of the outgoing and incoming administration？
On this crucial day when China reflects upon its past and looks to the future, the nation's capital sees a unique gathering of ambassadors and senior diplomats. They've been invited to the NPC opening session as special guests. Many of them have witnessed the country's unprecedented growth over the past five years.
"It's been very successful, judging from economic growth, China's entry into the WTO," said Borje Ljunggren, Swedish ambassador to China.
"The Chinese government has achieved enormous economic development and Europe and China are very first rank partners in foreign investment. This is substantial achievement," said Klaus Ebermann, EU ambassador to China.
The outgoing administration, with Zhu Rongji as the premier, wins much credit for bringing the achievements about.
"He has worked hard over the past years. He has come across very difficult challenges and met them. We applaud his good efforts," said Clark Randt, Jr., US ambassador to China.
"I think we are very much impressed by the way in which Premier Zhu has run the affairs in China over the past five years. He is greatly respected by diplomats, businessmen and everyone who has met him. We'll be sorry to see him step down, but we realize China's administration will be in safe hand with the incoming prime minister," said Christopher Hum, British ambassador to China.
Lawrence Brahm, author of "Zhu Rongji and the Transformation of Modern China", gave a concise account of the contributions of the outgoing administration and the challenges facing the incoming one.
"The third generation has been credited for their transformation and reform of China's economy from a planned to market economy. The state function of economic development reduced, the challenges facing the incoming generation of leadership will further rationalize the system, refine the leverage tool of monetary and interest policy, the security market, all in all, to further rationalize the function of government," said Lawrence Brahm, political economist.
And then there is the assessment from the UN representative.
"Now the challenge is to make sure everybody in the country benefits from the economic growth. More attention should be given to regional differences, urban－rural divide. We see signs that this will happen and there will be more equitable development in China," said Kerstin Leitner, resident representative of UN to China.
With history likely to record a favorable judgment of the retiring Chinese leadership, much is expected of the rising generation. The world will be watching to see how they carry out the legacy.
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Editor: Han Ling CCTV.com
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