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Celebrating more than just 55 years
China Daily  Updated: 2004-10-01 11:42

China's 55th anniversary can be celebrated like no other National Day has been in the years leading up to today's birthday.

Never in the past 55 years has the nation had so many reasons to feel so confident and proud of its foothold in the "forest of nations."

Take economic indices, the most widely employed gauges of a country's physical well-being.

In spite of many unfavourable forecasts and speculations, our accounts continue to augur well for sunny days on the Chinese horizon.

The country remains the most favoured destination of foreign direct investment. No amount of rhetoric has prevented sensitive overseas investors from spending their cash with the world's fourth- largest foreign trader so far.

Gross domestic product growth keeps hovering on a sufficiently high plane despite the authorities' recent attempts to cool down excessive heat in some industries and sectors.

Price hikes involving some essential daily necessities have in fact added to the difficulties of low-income households in cities and the countryside. But inflation is by and large under control.

While some cite Shanghai's debut in hosting the wildly expensive Formula One motor-racing event as well as an influx of luxury international brands as proof of a wealthier China, it is the number of people now holidaying abroad that offers real evidence that life for the average Chinese citizen is easier and more enjoyable than ever.

As Europe opens its arms to Chinese tourists, dozens of countries are beginning to share China's rising purchasing power beyond government purchase. Chinese tourists spend more on sight-seeing trips than many of their overseas counterparts.

But if China prided itself primarily on the swelling economy and rising rank on various economic lists over most of the past two decades, it is now tilting more towards the development of the human well-being of the nation.

Fattening purses are only half of the story about China's evolution into a better place to be.

While new highways and buildings are changing the national landscape, State power is also taking on a new and more humane face in this country.

The idea to give priority to people in making and executing decisions is making administrative powers more responsive to public opinion.

The introduction of the so-called "green GDP, " which places human development and ecological well-being side-by-side with, if not higher than, economic growth, reflects a significant shift in the thinking at decision-making level.

The efforts to discipline State power and their functionaries, as well as to protect civil rights and freedom, are bringing meaning to the maxim that people should be masters of their own lives.

Real efforts by the leaders to share in the problems of the common woe have made their calls for a more caring society more believable.

While a growing economy might boosts the country, an emerging sense of solidarity, which is less tangible and harder to quantify than economic indices, may turn out to be a more valuable asset for our nation.

Instead of pride-inspiring statistical reports, we find such "intangibles" more worthy of our celebrations.

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