Opinions vary widely as to China's international standing some exaggerate China's status on the world stage, others try to play down it.

It is important for us to define China's international standing accurately. A correct definition will help us to better safeguard our rights and perform our obligations in the world arena and, in turn, make due contributions to world and regional peace and development.

Where does China stand in the world political and economic matrix in the context of continued expansion of the country's overall strength?

It can be summed up in three sentences, in the opinion of this author: China is the largest developing socialist country. China is a regional power enjoying worldwide influence. China is a participant in the current international system and its preserver and builder.

The first sentence has three connotations.

First, China's political system is different from that of developed countries and a gap exists between the nation's legal system and those of Western nations.

Second, economically, China still lags behind developed countries, especially in terms of per capita income, international competitiveness, urbanization, education, healthcare, social security and narrowing the gap between rich and poor. This is despite the country's remarkable economic advances over the last decades that have placed some of its economic indicators at the top of other world economies.

Third, China is the biggest burly player in the developing world, taking into account its vast territories, huge population and gigantic economic volume. As a result, its success or failure in development and decision-making would impact the world tremendously, for good or bad.

The second sentence has two connotations.
 
First, China is purely a regional power. From the political, economic, military and cultural perspectives or from the angle of soft power, China stands at the fore of Asian countries and thus has great influence on the region and wide interests in the area.

Second, China is beginning to form the attributes of a world-class power, which find expression in its large GDP, massive trade volume, colossal foreign direct investment flowing into the country, massive manufacturing sector, enormous energy consumption and also partly in science and technology (the country is a major astronautics player, for example).

In recent years, more and more Chinese enterprises have been looking outward for development, making overseas investments.

In spite of all this, it must be noted that a fairly wide gap separates the country from the powerful players. For example, China trails far behind the United States and Japan economically and the United States and Russia militarily. In some aspects of conventional military strength, China even fails to measure up to Japan and India.

China's science and technology as a whole remain inferior to that of the United States, Japan and European nations.

In terms of soft power, values and cultural appeal in particular, the country still has a long way to go before it catches up with the United States and European countries.

The third sentence also has three connotations.

First, China has become an active participant of the international system. This signifies tremendous changes brought by the reform and opening up since the late 1970s.

China has joined the vast majority of important international treaties and organizations covering international politics, economics and security including arms control and non-proliferation.

Second, as the preserver of the current international system, China is supposed to fulfill its international obligations as well as safeguard its own national interests. The country does well in this regard, which is evidenced by the part it played in the international attempt to defuse the Korean Peninsular nuclear crisis and handle Iran's nuclear program.
 
Third, China is the builder of the international system. It believes that the existing international system has some defects and is haunted by maladies and that it should be improved through a joint effort from the international community to make it move in a more fair and rational way.

To summarize the world's view of China, we may use one sentence: China is a rising big country.

The summary is right in the sense that the overall strength of this large and populous country, its economic power in particular, has continued to rise over the last three decades.

While talking about China's "rise," international voices also note that serious disequilibrium exists in China's development. Those from this school of thought believe the country has to make long-standing and painstaking efforts before it becomes a real world power. This rings true for this author.

It is universally accepted that China's "rise" will bring challenges as well as opportunities to the world. This judgement is also basically true, in the opinion of this author.

For example, China's tremendous demand for energy in the course of high-speed growth, the environmental pollution caused by development and the sharp increase in market share of Chinese goods are bound to impact and challenge some countries.

The Chinese Government is fully aware of this and has put forward the principles of "peace, development, co-operation and bringing about a win-win situation" in an effort to cushion and reduce possible negative impact on other countries brought by China's fast growth.

But some equate "China's rise" with "seeking hegemony" and fear a "China threat." They believe that a fast developing China would be no exception to the "rising-power pattern," in which the swelling strength of a rising power inevitably disrupts the existing international system and could eventually trigger off a major war.

Their judgement is, however, ignorant of today's international structure, which is different from the past, and of China's development track, which is also different from history's rising powers.

Some international opinions on BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) the four most promising newly emerging market economies in the world are valuable for us to define China's role in the world arena. Some say China is the most promising of the four. Others argue that India is likely to surpass China. Still others remark that Russia and Brazil have greater potential, taking into account their unique natural resource advantages. Seriously pondering these arguments will help China fare better in the future.

Some think China is taking a development road that is different from that prescribed by the "Washington Consensus." They call it the "Beijing Consensus."

In the opinion of this author, the two roads for development mapped out in the guidelines of the Washington Consensus and the Beijing Consensus are different, but are by no means absolutely counter to one another.

China has no intention of imposing its own model of development on other countries, but is not displeased to see that its development experience can help the economic growth of other countries.

(China Daily December 22, 2006)