• by Martin Khor
• Monday, January 09, 2012
• Inter Press Service

Is China still a developing country or has it joined the ranks of the advanced developed countries? asks Martin Khor, Executive Director of the South Centre in Geneva.

In this article, the author writes that this has become a pressing question, especially after the US President Barack Obama reportedly told President Hu Jintao that China had to act more responsibly now that it has grown up. What Obama meant was that China should now be treated just like the US or Europe in terms of international obligations like reducing greenhouse house gas emissions, cutting its tariffs to near zero and giving up its subsidies under the WTO, giving aid to poor countries, and letting its currency float.

This is what the US has been pressuring China to do. In fact, most of the important multilateral negotiations are stalled because the US (with the backing of Europe and Japan) is insisting that China take on the obligations of a developed country.

In absolute terms, China is indeed a major economy. Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is second only to that of the US. It has become the biggest emitter of Greenhouse Gases, having overtaken the US. But China looks like a very ordinary developing country once we look at per capita indicators: ranked 91 in GDP per capita, 101 in the human development index, and 84 in per capita CO2 emissions, China is a middle-level or even lower-middle level developing country, below not only all the developed countries but also many developing countries.

(*) Martin Khor is the Executive Director of the South Centre in Geneva.

© Inter Press Service (2012) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

Where next?

Advertisement