Experience gives foreign reporters wider view of progress

Having seen Beijing residents rushing to buy cabbages to store for the winter in the 1980s, Andrey Kirillov, Beijing bureau chief of ITAR-TASS, would never have thought of the dramatic changes in China three decades later.

"Today people can enjoy better food and clothing and can afford luxury purchases," said the Russian journalist, who has been working in China for nearly two decades.

Kirillov is one of a large number of foreign correspondents in China impressed by China's soaring economic strength on the eve of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Beijing's measures to sustain economic growth and conduct political reform after the once-in-a-decade leadership transition are the top two issues of interest to foreign journalists during the weeklong CPC meeting.

CNN's Beijing Bureau Chief Jaime FlorCruz said Chinese people, who are now living in the second-biggest economy, have more choices than before but their increase in wealth has not kept up with rising national strength.

The US journalist, who has been living in China since 1971, still remembers people in the mid-1980s who did not like their first taste of "Chinese medicine flavor" Coca-Cola.

Now Coke sells well across the country and it even has local competitors, but "many people, even the rich, are searching for meaning in their rapidly changing lives", he said.

The Chinese economy is under mounting downward pressure after three decades of almost double-digit growth. The slowdown has caused concern in the international community as China has been one of the most important economic engines amid the global recession.

Kirillov cited capital outflow and increasing labor costs as problems China's economy faces, saying: "I would not exaggerate these problems. At the end, the Chinese economy becomes more and more mature, but it is also not right to downplay the significance of these signs."

Besides GDP growth, FlorCruz also referred to problems like corruption, energy shortages and environmental pollution.

Foreign journalists said they are keen to know how the new leadership selected during the CPC meeting will address these problems, which have been highlighted in the international community because of China's important status.

Joo Hyun-Jin, Beijing bureau chief of Seoul Daily, said she is eager to hear the new leadership's vision for the country's future, especially whether they would deepen China's ongoing political reform.

At the end of October, the CPC announced it will amend the Party Constitution at the congress. "As we already know, some changes will touch upon the CPC's statutes. But exactly what kind of changes? How will the Party theory mirror the evolutions of China's social structure?" Kirillov asked.

Despite these questions, Kirillov refuted "foreign observers' repeated predictions of China's imminent collapse", saying he is optimistic about China's future.