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This is good news for the Chinese people, who traditionally value long life. It's also true that the tremendous development of China's economy has contributed to these statistics. The Chinese people are comparably much richer. The symbols of luxury in the 1970s -- bicycles, watches and sewing machines -- have been replaced with computers, cars and villas, in both cities and rural areas.
Despite the great wealth gap between the developed eastern areas and developing western regions in China, the whole nation is enjoying its highest level of prosperity in history.
China's gross domestic product reached US$3.43 trillion in 2007, the National Bureau of Statistics announced Thursday, making it the third largest economy in the world after the United States and Japan. China is also the third largest exporting country after the United States and Germany. China's foreign currency reserves are the highest in the world, surpassing US$1.4 trillion. China appears to have shifted from a primarily agricultural country to an industrial one.
However, statistics about life expectancy and economic growth cannot be used to measure the quality of Chinese life. There are other factors to be considered and many problems to be overcome.
First are concerns about inflation. In 2007 prices rose sharply, especially in key areas such as food and medicine. The Chinese government has taken some measures to slow the economy, such as limiting investment in infrastructure projects and raising interest rates on loans.
Environmental problems are also a headache for the Chinese people. The ecology has been badly damaged in many areas due to overemphasis on economic development; forests have been cut down, rivers and air are polluted, and rare animals have been killed.
What's more, economic development has caused many ethical problems. Corruption and bribery have become grassroots problems, seen at almost every level of Chinese society -- in businesses, schools, security bureaus and government offices.
The Chinese government has come to realize that these factors cause social instability and has adopted various policies, from strict anti-corruption measures to reviving Chinese traditional festivals, in an effort to reawaken social values. Without social justice and strong social mores, the Chinese people will not enjoy a high quality of life.
There are other issues that continue to make life difficult for the Chinese. Unemployment remains a major problem. Economic development has provided huge numbers of jobs for rural people and blue-collar workers, yet these peasant workers who have traveled from rural areas to work in the nation's factories have also brought many problems.
There are inadequate provisions for their healthcare, insurance and children's education, for example. The migrants have also brought increased criminal activity, including murders, prostitution, drug use and drug trafficking. Meanwhile urban residents also have their own problems resulted from work pressure and joblessness.
Hence, it cannot be concluded that greater wealth and longer lives -- even though these are the traditional wishes of every Chinese family -- have made the people truly happy. It requires a convergence of these physical elements with spiritual and social elements to create the conditions for a truly happy life.
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(Zhang Quanyi is an associate professor at the Zhejiang Wanli University in Ningbo, China, and a Ph.D. candidate at Shanghai International Studies University, studying policy making and collective identity. His research interests focus on conflict management and identity construction. He can be contacted at qyzhangupi@gmail.com. ©Copyright Zhang Quanyi.)
