UN human development report shows China's great progress

A recent human development report indicated that China has been the only country jumping from low development group to a high one since 1990, which was attributed to the country's people-centered development philosophy, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

According to the Human Development Report 2023/2024 titled "Breaking the Gridlock: Reimagining Cooperation in a Polarized World", China's human development index rose to 0.788 in 2022. The number was 0.499 in 1990.

The report was released by the United Nations Development Programme on Thursday.

The continuous rise of China's HDI is the result of the Communist Party of China's implementation of the people-centered philosophy and from putting the people at the core of modernization, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily news conference.

Since the reform and opening up, China has lifted 70 percent of the global population out of poverty and China realized the poverty alleviation target of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development ten years in advance.

China's life expectancy has reached 78.2 years, and its per capita disposable annual income has reached nearly 40,000 yuan ($5,558.57).

Wang said that, with Chinese modernization pushing forward, Chinese people's wish for a better life will come true with better living standards and quality.

The UNDP report also reveals that human development recovery is uneven in nature. While wealthy countries are showing signs of robust recovery, the poorest are struggling.

All the member countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have surpassed their 2019 HDI level but among least developed countries, only one in two have recovered their already low pre-crisis HDI levels.

"This has highlighted the urgency to placing development high on global agenda," the spokesman said.

Noting the Global Development Initiative has injected impetus to global development cooperation and has implemented sustainable development goals, Wang said that China is ready to work with all parties to enhance cooperation under the GDI framework.

China would like to make contributions through cooperation to implement the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development so that people from various countries will live a better life, he said.

Also at the news conference, Wang emphasized that China's progress in human development is not contradictory to the fact that China is still a developing county.

"Generally, China is still a developing country, this is the fact based on our national conditions and based on the international law," he said.

China's rights as a developing country should not be infringed upon, he said, adding that, at the same time, the country would like to work hard to make more contributions to human progress and global development.