一是中国正在走一条适合中国国情的发展道路。一个十三亿人口的大国，该如何谋发展，历史上没有先例，教科书上没有答案，照搬国外不行，闭门造车也不行。中国人牢牢把握自己的国情，借鉴吸取世界各国有益经验，不断摸索实践和改革创新，获得了成功。这条发展道路的特点是以经济建设为中心，以人为本，全面协调和可持续发展，同时坚持社会公平正义，保障人民的民主权利。这条发展道路政治制度保障是人民代表大会制度及中国共产党领导的多党合作和政治协商制度，经济制度保障是以公有制为主体、多种所有制经济共同发展，包括私营经济、个体经济和外资经济。这既与世界各国有共同点，又有着鲜明中国特色。
First, China is following a development path suitable to its national realities. So, how should a large country with 1.3 billion people achieve its development goals?
· There is no precedent in history.
· There is no ready answer in the textbook.
· Copying others won’t work.
· Wishful thinking in isolation of the world is a dead end.
So, the Chinese people have based their efforts on China’s national conditions while drawing on useful experience of other countries. It has been a process of exploration, experiment, reform and innovation. With hard efforts China has succeeded in finding the right path. This path has the following features:
· It focuses on economic development.
· It puts people first.
· It promotes comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development.
· It upholds social equity and justice and protects people’s democratic rights.
The political institutional guarantee of this development path is built on:
· the system of the people’s congress
· and the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.
The economic institutional guarantee for this development path is a multi-ownership economy. Public ownership is the mainstay of the economy. At the same time, it allows development of private ownership and foreign investment side by side. This development path has similarities with other countries. It also has characteristics only found in China.
二是中国仍然是一个发展中国家。中国经济总量很大，但人均GDP去年仅5432美元，根据IMF的排名，居世界第89位，仅为英国人均的1/7。中国的贫困人口仍有1.28亿(中国的标准相当于每人每天1美元)，若按联合国制定的每人每天1.25美元的新标准，则这个数字还要大。中国单位GDP的能耗是国际水平的3至4倍，是英国的8倍。我曾经在中国最贫穷的西部省份之一甘肃省工作过，走访了甘肃86个县区市中的60多个，深刻体会到中国西部地区与东部沿海省份相比、农村与城市相比还有很大差距。在甘肃农村一些地区，基本生活用水都存在困难，脱贫还有很长的路要走。
