Playing host to the Expo and the Olympics alone does not guarantee China a developed nation status

The grand opening ceremony of the Shanghai Expo, complete with laser beams, fireworks and elegant costumed performers, have raised questions as to whether China is still a developing country or not. Media reports about the extravaganza, many clearly exaggerated, too have given the impression that prosperity has come to China.

Yet, as dazzling as they appear to be, these scenes of celebration cannot mask the harsh reality - that the majority live far more humbly than the impression conveyed of China by the gala Expo inaugural.

Between 40 and 60 percent of China's rural residents, or one third of the country's total, cannot afford to pay for healthcare, according to the latest available data.

In some poverty-stricken regions, especially in western China, nearly 60 to 80 percent of the sick die at home due to lack of money to pay for medical treatment.

Next to breast cancer, cervical cancer is the second most lethal killer of women, with more than 100,000 new cases occurring each year in the country. This is one fourth the world's total.

Of these cases, more than 70 percent are discovered among rural women, as unsafe sanitary conditions hasten the onset of the disease.

The villages in which these women live face chronic water shortages, and they do not have enough money to go to a public bathhouse, usually located miles away.

Around 4 to 6 percent of the nearly 30 million children born annually in China suffer from some sort of birth defect. That means, every 30 seconds there is a baby born somewhere having some congenital defect.

Almost all of the 30 kinds of congenital birth defects defined by the World Health Organization are seen in China.

The country is also one among 20 nations seriously suffering from arsenic poisoning, with 15 million residents in 29 of the 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions exposed to arsenic in drinking water.

Seven of these provinces and regions are still struggling to reach the Universal Salt Iodization goals enumerated by the United Nations at the World Summit for Children in 1990 in New York.

These are but a tiny fraction of the problems China is facing and is trying to resolve in its path toward development. They also serve to remind us that ours is still a developing country.

Some people in China are eager to shake off the label of poverty and its developing country tag once they become better off. But they do not represent the majority of Chinese however much money they may squander on luxury products. In fact, such a kind of show-off in itself reveals an upstart psyche commonly seen in the nouveau riche of developing countries.

China is only big in its size and population. While its gross domestic product is ranked third in the world, it is far from being impressive if divided by its population of 1.3 billion, which ranks China's GDP way back in the list of underdeveloped countries.

We are deluding ourselves if we assume that China has joined the rich club.

Of course, China should have its say in international affairs as a just world would allow every member of the global village an equal say, regardless of its economic strength.

China's increased voting rights in organizations like the World Bank should not change its status as a developing country. Only a minority would assume that China has become a developed equal of other industrialized countries with just an increase in such voting rights.

China and its people do have the right to be jubilant while playing host to events such as the World Expo and Olympic Games, but it must not be forgotten that it is laden with various burdens faced by a developing country.

During my first trip years ago to Yushu in western China's Qinghai province, the prefecture recently hit by a devastating earthquake, I was surprised to see people singing and dancing happily during their annual Horse Racing Festival.

Four of the six counties under the prefecture's jurisdiction were state-designated poor counties, yet the people there looked happy.

In answering my questions, a local dancer said flatly that singing and dancing "do not necessarily belong to the rich. Our people will sing and dance even when they are starving."

I am not for irrational extravagance, but we in a developing country need that kind of optimism to face harsh realities and challenges to create a better future.

The author is a visiting professor of journalism at Tsinghua University.

(China Daily 05/28/2010 page8)