External challenges 'big issue' for China

BRUSSELS - European experts recommended China's top leadership keep an eye on the "more challenging" external situation it faces as it started a key annual meeting on Friday discussing development strategies.

As the Fifth Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China convened in Beijing, European scholars said China's external challenges mainly result from Western countries' changing attitudes toward China, treating it either as a world power or a developing country.

At the meeting, proposals for China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) on national economic and social development will be discussed.