BEIJING, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- President Hu Jintao, marking China's 10th anniversary in the World Trade Organization, stressed the country would push ahead with economic reform and openness.
It was 10 years ago Sunday that China was admitted to the WTO. The official Chinese news agency Xinhua, in a special report, said China's admittance to the organization heralded unprecedented economic growth, making the Communist country the world's second-largest economy after the United States and the largest commodity exporter.
China, through trade surpluses, has become the world's largest holder of foreign exchange reserves, now exceeding $3 trillion from about $212 billion in 2001.
Speaking in Beijing at a special forum, Hu said reform and opening China's economy to other nations will continue to underpin China's development, Xinhua reported.
Hu said China will implement a more proactive strategy and open more areas to the outside world. He called the country's entry into the WTO a decade ago a major event in the development of the policy.
He urged other countries to recognize China's full-market economy status and relax restrictions on high-tech commodity exports to China.
Joining the WTO and the introduction of international rules helped China improve its socialist market economy, said Long Guoqiang, direct of the Chinese Cabinet's Development Research Center.
But China's export-oriented strategy, with its reliance on high inputs, high energy consumption and capital accumulation, has also caused grave negative effects on the sustainability of the economy, Xinhua reported. The strategy has complicated domestic policy decisions and resulted in complaints from its trade partners.
China's GDP growth has been slowing this year, to 9.1 percent in the third quarter from 9.5 percent in the second quarter and 9.7 percent in the first quarter. Policy makers are trying to boost domestic consumption to reduce reliance on exports.
