China's college students devote most of their time to their studies, but they still manage to indulge their interest in economic and political developments at home and abroad.

A survey of 3,000 undergraduate college students in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has showed young people are confident in China's political prospects and satisfied with the country's goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way.

The respondents were randomly selected from 10 universities, 300 students in each, by a provincial research institute on adolescence for a study program supported by the central government.

"This generation of young people are beneficiaries of China's reform and opening up. They've experienced earth-shaking changes, particularly the nation's accession to the WTO, Beijing's acquisition of the right to host the 2008 Olympics and the flight of the nation's first manned space ship," said Lu Jie, deputy director of the institute.

"All these significant events have made them identify strongly with developments of the nation."

The survey showed 80.19 percent of the respondents said they agreed that the socialism was an inevitable option for the development of China.

The survey also showed that the college students boasted a wide range of interests, strong ideas and personalities. They paid attention to the interests of the public, following authoritative information and rumors alike, with sharp insight and judgment on major happenings in China and around the world.

Young people believed they lived in an era that allowed everybody to speaking their minds frankly.

However, the survey also discovered that college students were reluctant to take social responsibilities, said Lu. Few said they aimed to serve the society.

(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2004)