China intends to achieve basic modernization in the mid-21st century through peaceful development and the pursuit of development is the most important strategic goal for China at present, a Chinese expert has said.

Gong Li, a professor of the Party School of the Communist Party of China ( CPC) Central Committee, said in an article in Tuesday's China Daily that China has absolutely no intention or motive to threaten others, having marched since 1978 along the path of integration with, rather than alienation from, the tide of globalization.

"To the world at large, China's peaceful development is not a threat but an opportunity," said Gong, who is also deputy director of the Party School's Center for International Strategic Studies.

First, the sustained development of China's economy has been pulling the world economy along for some time and will continue to do so, said Gong.

He said as the size of its economy and foreign trade grow further, China will provide the rest of the world with even more market opportunities and generate a greater boost to the scale of employment in other countries.

Second, by mainly relying on its own resources, China has been making unremitting efforts to reduce human poverty and improve life quality with undisputed results, the professor said.

Facts show that since it began the reforms and opening up, the Chinese government has helped 220 million people shake off poverty, while providing 22.05 million urban residents with minimum security of living and more than 60 million handicapped people with assistance.

Besides, through its history of peaceful development, China has shown to the world it is a responsible major member of the international society, said Gong.

Both China's resistance to the pressure of devaluating currency in the Asian financial crisis and its active assistance to the tsunami-hit nations last year showed that China has always been "a protective and stabilizing force for world peace and stability," said the professor.

Moreover, China intends to link its own development with that of the world through peaceful development and build a harmonious world.

"China can, and needs to, follow through on the strategic decision of making peace and never seek to act in a hegemonic way during or after its peaceful rise, "said Gong.

(Xinhua News Agency February 21, 2006)