China: committed to peaceful development

China has confirmed its adherence to peaceful development in response to a United States' predictions that China will become the world's largest economy before 2030 outdoing the United States. "China will unswervingly pursue a way of peaceful development. China's development aims at making greater contributions toward peace and development of mankind, as well as a happy life for its people, instead of overwhelming others or scrambling for world dominance," Chinese News agency (Xinhua) quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei as saying at a regular press briefing on Wednesday. The predictions came in a report, issued on Monday by the US entitled "Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds" stating that  China's economy is likely to surpass that of the United States a few years before 2030; however, it added that China may not replace the United States on a global level. Despite the remarkable achievements made since reform and opening-up, China is still the world's biggest developing country and has a long way to go in realizing socialist modernization. We have a clear understanding of that," the spokesman said. Hong said his country will continue to focus on economic construction, so as to achieve comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development. He noted that the peace, stability and development of the Asia-Pacific region and the world requires the joint efforts and cooperation of all countries adding that China has always adhered to an open and inclusive foreign policy and persisted in building good relations with neighboring countries.