Huge stockpile fails to impress Beijingers living on the breadline
Public reaction was muted in Beijing yesterday to news that China now leads the world in foreign exchange reserves.
Beijing construction company engineer Zhang Yu said the stockpile was testament to the rise of the economy, but the man in the street had not really benefited from the country's growth.
'We have seen the [yuan] exchange rate rise and prices rise, but our salaries have remained almost unchanged,' Mr Zhang said.
'Even though it is definitely good news for the country to have so much forex reserves, it actually has nothing to do with the average person.'
Beijing visitor Doris Sun, a fourth-year student at Chongqing's Southwest University of Political Science and Law, said the reserves pointed to an optimistic outlook for the economy.
However, but she was concerned that much of the money was used to buy American bonds.
'This means that the money we earned through hard work was lent to the United States instead of spending it on ourselves,' the 20-year-old economics major said.
'There are so many things that China needs to invest in at the moment, such as compulsory education and building infrastructure. We all know that many migrant workers in Beijing don't even have a middle school education,' she said.
A 26-year-old Renmin University economics doctoral student suggested that China's premier forex reserves position was not necessarily a good thing.
'Everything needs to be balanced, including a country's forex reserves,' he said. 'China's forex reserves have tipped the balance too far, and authorities should reduce it to some extent.
'It's not always a good thing to be the world's No1. For example, China's population is the biggest in the world, but who can say that is something to be proud of?'
For many ordinary people, the announcement of the economic milestone was of little significance.
A Beijing taxi driver refused to talk about it. 'Don't ask me this question. I am still living under the poverty line,' he said.
