People first, not GDP

New, scientific and sustainable development plan will raise living standards and ensure balanced growth

The long-running worship of gross domestic product (GDP) is beginning to show signs of diminishing in China. The 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) blueprint, approved at the just-concluded fourth session of the 11th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, sets the country's average economic growth target at a low 7 percent for the next five years.

The growth target is set at 8 percent for 2011, the starting year of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, a tangible decline from the double-digit growth in almost all the years during the past decades since the reform and opening-up.