Chapter 3 one multiplication one division

I remember that in the 1970s, Alsop, one of the three major columnists in the United States, predicted: No matter how brilliant China's economic achievements are, as long as it cannot control its birth rate, it cannot avoid the risk of all achievements being wiped out.Now, while explaining China's economic strength and comprehensive national strength, you have also emphasized China's population pressure, and you have also mentioned a multiplication and a division.Why do you say that?Why use two simple math problems as the basis for China's "peaceful rise"? As we all know, China has become one of the fastest-growing countries in the world since it began to implement the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, with an average annual GDP growth rate of 9.4%. In 1978, China accounted for less than 1% of the world's total economic output, but now it has reached 4%. In 1978, China's total import and export trade was 20.6 billion US dollars, and last year it reached 851.2 billion US dollars, ranking fourth in the world.Therefore, in the past 1/4 century, China's economic strength and comprehensive national strength have indeed achieved substantial development.However, if we only look at the growth of China's economic aggregate, it is obviously not enough to see the real situation in China.I hope our friends can still see the other side of things, which is the basic national condition that Deng Xiaoping said "China is so big and has such a large population".The thing is this: From the perspective of economic aggregate, China can be regarded as a big economic country, and the rapid development of China's economy has an impact on the world.Of course, even in terms of aggregate, China's economic aggregate in 2003 was only 1/7 of that of the United States and 1/3 of that of Japan.As for the per capita income, China ranks behind the 110th in the world, and is still a developing country with a relatively low per capita income. After all, our influence on the world economy is limited.In short, the central meaning of what I said here is that China's development is very difficult, and China's development is facing a series of super-large-scale problems.I'm not saying how great China is, or that China has already risen, but I'm talking about problems and difficulties, that there are many problems, and that development is very difficult.

Of course, after talking about problems and difficulties, I emphasized that even though we are facing so many and such big problems, and facing a series of super-large-scale problems, the Chinese still have confidence.The reason why the Chinese are confident is that we have created a path with our own successful practice. In popular language, in a language that people with different ideologies at home and abroad can understand, it is "the development path of peaceful rise".Such a "development path of peaceful rise" is of course the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the path for China to realize socialist modernization, and the path for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.In order to continue on this path, to truly get rid of underdevelopment, and to enable the majority of the people to live a relatively prosperous and civilized life, for such a big event, it is enough for us to count from now on. Two to three generations of Chinese people, from the leadership to the broadest masses of the people, have been very busy.