"It won't be a problem to achieve economic growth for the next five years," says Prof. Ding Yuanzhu, deputy director of the Policy Advisory Department with the Chinese Academy of Governance.

"The point is that China must change its mode of economic growth, social development, living standards, environment protection and energy efficiency, if the country wants to build a xiaokang society in an all-round way."

The idea of xiaokang was first put forth by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s and early 1980s while drawing China's development blueprint.

It is the government's goal for 2020 to build a comprehensively xiaokang society, in which Chinese people are supposed to live well-off lives similar to Western developed countries.

Decades of rapid development have turned China into a "big" nation. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 9.1 percent year-on-year to reach more than 33 trillion yuan last year and its foreign exchange reserves reached almost US$2.4 trillion, exceeding all other countries for the fourth straight year.

In the first half of this year, China overtook Japan as the second-largest economy in the world.

The hosting of Olympic Games and World Expo, and manned space flight project and Cheng'e lunar probe project have showcased China's economic rise and bolstered its people's pride and confidence.

Yet, China is far far from being a "strong" nation and its people are far from being "well-off."

(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2010)