A triumphant decade

Ten years back, at the threshold of the new millennium, we fidgeted with the rest of the world, wondering not only what immediate difference the "millennium bug" would make, but also what the world would look like at the new decade.

Today, as we bid farewell to the first decade of the new millennium, many, if not all, of those question marks have found answers. With some in the West labeling the past 10 some years as the least desirable in their countries' recent histories, the Chinese feel dramatically different. Our people are actually among a pretty small few the world over who are embracing 2010 full of confidence and hopes.

Worldwide, stories about China have surrounded the sizzling economy. This has hardly changed 10 years into the new millennium. With 150 million carrying on a day-to-day struggle for subsistence, our people, from top national leaders to the men and women from rural communities, understands and accepts the centrality of economic concerns in this country.