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China 'not after world supremacy'

China will never challenge the US for world leadership, a leading mainland academic said yesterday at the Boao forum.

Wang Jisi, vice-chairman of the China Reform Forum and a senior official of the Central Party School, reassured an audience of top mainland and foreign scholars that the country was 'not in a position to challenge the US' and that comparisons between China and the former Soviet Union were unrealistic.

'Although China's overall strength has improved, the gap between today's China and the US is far greater than that between the US and the Soviet Union,' Mr Wang said. 'Now the gross domestic product of China - about US$1.4 trillion - is less than one-seventh of that of the US and when it comes to per-capital GDP, China is only around one-30th.

'In terms of military forces, the US is way ahead of China in defence expenditure, the number of strategic nuclear missiles, the navy, the air force and other areas.'

Mr Wang also said the central government had a clear understanding of national conditions, strengths and development targets.

China's policy was to create an international climate conducive to its own development, to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity and to promote national reunification, but not to challenge the US for supremacy.

Huang Renwei, deputy director of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said the mainland was even willing to reassure Asia and the world that its new policy of 'a peaceful rise and economic integration' also applied to Taiwan.

'The Taiwan issue is a key factor in determining whether we are serious about our new national policy of peace,' he said. 'We must have three attitudes. We must have confidence, patience and persistence in achieving peaceful reunification.

'We must move from cross-strait conflict to cross-strait competition.

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