Hu commits to fiscal reform with prudence

Source: Agencies/Shanghai Daily  |   2008-8-2  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

President Hu Jintao shakes hands with Rowan Callick from The Australian newspaper at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday. Hu was interviewed by journalists from 25 news groups from around the world and answered questions on the Games and China's economic and social development. More in photo gallery

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CHINA'S priority was to maintain steady, fast growth while containing price pressures, President Hu Jintao said yesterday, vowing "comprehensive" political and economic reforms in the wake of the Beijing Olympics.

In a group interview with journalists from 25 major global media organizations at the Great Hall of the People a week before the Games begin, the president said China would continue to strengthen and improve macroeconomic controls that had produced five straight years of double-digit growth.

Hu said the country managed to overcome the devastating May 12 earthquake and heavy winter snowstorms that paralyzed central and southern China. The government was now wrestling with inflation, he said, but would also "maintain steady, fast economic growth."

He said that the Games would have an enduring benefit for China and leave positive "spiritual legacies" more sustainable and valuable than the material legacies of the Olympics.

Hu identified three spiritual legacies. The first is the promotion of the Olympic spirit of unity, friendship and peace. The second is the realization of the concept of a green Olympics, a high-tech Olympics and a people's Olympics. The third is the advancement of reciprocal exchanges and learning among cultures of all countries.

"The Chinese government and the Chinese people have been working earnestly to honor the commitments made to the international community," he said.

"The determining factor in securing the success of the Olympic Games is to work vigorously to promote the Olympic spirit featuring friendship, solidarity and peace. The key is to ensure that athletes from all countries have a level playing field to compete fairly.

"We need to ensure that our friends from the five continents can further enhance their mutual understanding and deepen their friendship during the Olympic Games."

The Olympics would showcase China's peace-loving image and its determination to embrace peace, Hu said.

The president was asked whether China worried that a successful Beijing Olympics would intensify the so-called "China threat" theory. His response: China is still the biggest developing country in the world despite its remarkable progress in modernization over the past 30 years.

The problems China faced in its development process were unusual, he said.

"We will build a comprehensive welfare society benefiting a billion of our population, so as to realize national modernization and the common good of all Chinese people ... China still has a long way to go," Hu said.

China had explicitly announced that it observed a defensive military policy and would never seek hegemony or military expansion. China would unswervingly adhere to the road of peaceful development and the opening-up strategy aimed at mutual benefits, Hu said.

But Hu made a plea not to politicize the Games.

He called it "inevitable that people from different countries and regions may not see eye to eye with one another on some different issues." But he said that those differences should be worked out through dialogue.

Hu said that as early as 1908 some Chinese were saying their country should host the Olympics, adding that when the Games opened next Friday it would be the fulfilment of a 100-year dream.

Prodded by a question into displaying a more humorous and personal side, Hu said his favorite sports were swimming and table tennis and that he wished he could play for the Chinese team. "But I would like to let you know that since the lineup of the Chinese table tennis team is already finalized and made public, it seems that my wish cannot be granted."