China focuses on its domestic goals amid G7 clamor: Singaporean media

While the United States is busy uniting its allies to counter China, the latter continues to focus its main efforts on increasing its national strength, said an opinion piece by Yu Zeyuan on Singapore's Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao on June 14.

The Group of Seven Summit which ended on June 13 in the UK, the piece noted, was the first offline meeting between the leaders of the G7 countries in two years. During the summit, meetings between the G7 leaders and the leaders of Australia, South Korea, as well as many other bilateral meetings, were held. In all these meetings, China came up again and again.

Yu said that overall the G7 will have little real impact on China. Following the global spread of the coronavirus, trade between China and the US, Europe, Japan, and even India has not shrunk, but continued to rise, and it is unlikely that the US and its allies will be able to change the situation in the short term.

Yu said the best way to resist the external pressure is to take care of its own affairs. According to the article, as the G7 was in full swing, China issued a guideline on supporting the eastern province of Zhejiang taking the lead in building a demonstration zone as an example for promoting common prosperity nationwide. By 2025, Zhejiang's per capita GDP will reach the level of moderately developed economies, with basic public services equalized by 2025. The gap between urban and rural development, and the income and living standards of urban and rural residents will be narrowed, while the income-generating capacity and social welfare level of low-income groups will be significantly improved, with an olive-shaped income structure of a significantly enlarged middle-income group taking shape. By 2035, Zhejiang province will basically achieve common prosperity.

Compared with external pressure, Yu argued, China's bigger challenge is how to resolve its unbalanced and inadequate development.

A National Development and Reform Commission official was quoted in the article as saying the authorities' aim is to implement reforms to develop frameworks for objectives, operations, policies, and evaluation in Zhejiang that will promote common prosperity, which in turn will explore the ways, accumulate experiences, and provide an example for the rest of the country.

Achieving common prosperity was the original aim of China's reform and opening-up. Now, the authorities are rolling out a roadmap and timetable to achieve common prosperity strategy, which is no less significant than when the special economic zones in Shenzhen and Pudong in Shanghai were established, the article said.

In other words, China's focus on domestic issues is the right choice for China, and the source of its strength in resisting pressure, Yu concluded.