5,600 people, of whom 3,200 are from the Foreign Ministry. Ambassador Sun Bigan, who was recently named as one of the top ten figures inspiring China most in 2004, is one of the best representatives of the Foreign Ministry.
Recently, I came across a group of figures from a western newspaper. Let’s take a look at them together to see whether the “China threat theory” makes sense or is nothing but ridiculous nonsense. In 2004, the defense expenditure of the US was US$455.9billion, accounting for 3.9% of its GDP, while that of China in the same year was only RMB 211.7billion, making up 1.6% of China’s GDP. The US defense expenditure was 17.8 times that of China.
In 2004, the per capita defense expenditure in the US was US$1,540 while that of China was about US$20, with the US figure being 77 times that of China. In 2003, the US defense expenditure accounted for 47% of the global total, exceeding the total of the other 25 countries in the world with the largest defense expenditures. The figure was also 3.5 times the total sum of the defense expenditure of the other four permanent members of the Security Council.
China follows the road of peaceful development. To maintain peace is both the starting point and the purpose of Chinese diplomacy. I believe that all those who respect the truth will see China as a staunch force for
peace in the world. Lesson 11
11.4 ABC of the WTO
A: With the develpment of globalizaion, international economic organizations are playing a more important role. What are the major economic organizations in the world nowadays?
Could you please tell me briefly about them, not only about their common characteristics in international trade practice, but also their particular features?
B: 三个主要的国际经济组织是世界银行、国际货币基金组织和世界贸易组织。
世界贸易组织是于1995年从关贸总协定发展而来的，它是一个在贸易规则基础上进行贸易谈判的论坛，也是一个解决国家之间贸易争端的世界性组织，其核心作用是处理成员国之间的贸易关系。 相比之下，世界银行和国际货币基金组织是单独与其成员国打交道。它们对工业化国家