BERLIN, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang says his country may have achieved impressive growth rates but it has a weak economic foundation and its development uneven.
In an article titled "China will be more open to the world" in the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung in connection with his current European visit, Li wrote that China has become a major economy in the world.
However, Li, an economist and a top-ranking official of China's Politburo Standing Committee, said despite these achievements China's basic national conditions remain the same.
"China has a huge population and a weak economic foundation, and its development is uneven," he said, noting the population has brought China's per capita income to "somewhere around 100th in the world."
Li, whose visit is designed to expand China's presence in Europe through improved trade and other ties, said of the 1.3 billion people in China, 700 million are farmers whose per-capita income is $800 to $900.
"And 150 million in China are still living below the U.N. standard of U.S. $1 dollar a day per person. The task China faces to develop its economy and improve its people's living standards remains daunting," Li wrote.
Li said China needs to restructure the economy. He said the government will "stick to the win-win strategy" of opening-up.
"It will explore new areas of opening-up and raise the level of opening-up," he said. "And China will only open wider to the outside world.
"We hope that the EU will relax restrictions on high-tech exports to China, promote the improvement of the international trade and financial regime, and develop trade relations that are balanced and sustainable," he said.
