From a national point of view, rapid development in its international trade and the rise of its economic status has helped China to constantly improve its socialist market economy system and optimize its economic structure, encouraging the rise of emerging industries such as electronic information. The success of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo also highlighted China's comprehensive strength. Moreover, today China plays a bigger role in international affairs, as can be seen in the effect China's development has in inhibiting the international financial crisis. China's participation in many international conferences also indicates the country has drawn the attention of the international community.

In terms of enterprise, foreign-invested, state-owned and private enterprises in China are all given full play in the market. Foreign-invested enterprises in particular have boosted China's economic development, while the expansion of private enterprises has helped tackle unemployment. At present, China has more than eight million private enterprises, accounting for 70 percent of the country's total enterprises. They have freed themselves from the shackles of the operating pattern of family enterprises and geared themselves to international conventions. More importantly, by learning from the advanced experience of their foreign counterparts and absorbing the essence of traditional Chinese culture, the emergence of a Chinese corporate culture will propel them into a challenging new stage.

From the point of view of the people, China's per capita income has quadrupled from US $1,000 in 2001 to US $4,000 in 2010. Along with the achievement of national values, people are freer to choose how to realize their personal values. Chinese people are gradually building up an awareness of democracy and civil rights, as well as a consciousness of the rule of law.

CT: During the past decade, have the Chinese government and enterprises adapted to the WTO rules?

Xue: At the beginning, China was in a learning curve with respect to the WTO, and gradually China began to use the rules to safeguard its own rights and interests. Currently, China is participating in the formulation of the new agreement for the Doha Round.

Generally speaking, China has basically adapted to the rules, however, conversance with the rules varies among government organs at different levels. For example, the central government is more familiar with the rules than local governments, the governments in economically developed areas are better at this than the governments in economically underdeveloped areas. Governments of large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have established research institutions and invited experts to study the WTO rules. Furthermore, compared to their successors, the first batch of Chinese officials who worked at the WTO had a better grasp of the rules. We have already suggested to our government that it is necessary to launch another universal education effort about the WTO rules for our officials, including an introduction to the progress of the Doha Round.

Enterprises are also confronted with the same situation. Export enterprises have a stronger awareness than domestic-oriented ones. Foreign-invested enterprises have better rules consciousness, and are much more active than state-owned and private enterprises.

CT: China's former WTO chief negotiator Long Yongtu once said, "The significance of entering WTO is to boost reform by opening up." At present, how is China's progress in economic restructuring?

Xue: We usually mention the mechanism of "reversed transmission of pressure," which means to accelerate domestic economic restructuring by opening-up. We have made great achievements in our reform, but there is still room for improvement.

There are many qualifications to be met by any country applying for accession to the WTO, and one condition is that the country must amend related laws and regulations to fit with the WTO rules. In order to gain WTO membership, China not only modified about 2,300 laws and statutes, but also promulgated several new laws such as the Government Procurement Law, the Civil Servant Law and the Enterprise Income Tax Law. This has made the government function more service-oriented and law-based. Besides, China has steadily improved its economic system by deepening the reform of state-owned enterprises, abolishing institutional obstacles to private enterprise, and levied a tax on goods produced at the expense of resources and environment.

Admittedly, some aspects of China's economic restructuring are not going well. The motivating force of current reforms is not equivalent to the original impetus we had when we joined the WTO. By stirring up public opinion, some interest groups have exerted pressure on government's policy-making. As a result, some good policies have been shelved, and some laws and regulations have not been fully enforced. There is also the phenomenon that occasionally leaders overrule the law, resulting in a failure to achieve strong law enforcement, especially on such issues as intellectual property protection and environmental protection. In many cases, where local interests prevail, some local governments do not adhere to central government policy. Meanwhile, certain requirements of the central government are felt to be inappropriate for local conditions and can impair the effort to deepen reforms at local levels.

Only by transforming the concept of reform into conscious action can we expect change, which is what concerns me.