(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Reports from Xinhua News Agency

China staged a grand celebration in Beijing on October 1, showcasing the country's achievements over the past 60 years. President Hu Jintao and other leaders viewed the two-hour pageant, which involved nearly 200,000 soldiers and civilians, from atop the Tian'anmen Rostrum, where Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the birth of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949.

     The national anthem played by a 1,300-member military band and a solemn flag-raising ceremony ushered in the festivities. Wearing a Mao suit, Hu stood in an open-top black Red Flag limousine to review the military formations.

     "We must unswervingly follow the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics...and the reform and opening-up policy," Hu said after reviewing the troops. "The development and progress of New China over the past 60 years fully proved that only socialism can save China and only reform and opening up can ensure the development of China, socialism and Marxism."

     The anniversary was marked in Havana by Cuban President Raul Castro, during an official ceremony in the Universal Hall of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

     Zhao Rongxian, China's ambassador in Cuba, stated that the constitution of the New China brought to an end the history of humiliation in the old semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and marked the final victory in the struggle against imperialism and feudalism by the Chinese people in the modern age.

     Cuban Vice President Esteban Lazo said that progressives around the world are celebrating the six decades of the PRC's existence. He recalled that the homeland of José Marti was the first nation in the Western hemisphere to recognize the PRC.

      Here are some facts and figures of China's economic development during past 60 years.

- China's gross domestic product (GDP) surpassed 30 trillion yuan (3.86 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2008, 77 times more than in 1952 after inflation. It accounts for 27.2% of the U.S. GDP, ranking third in the world.

- China's per capita GDP amounted to $2,770, turning from a low-income country to a lower-middle-income one by World Bank standards.

- The proportion of primary industry dropped from 51% of the economy to 11.3%, while secondary industry climbed from 20.8% to 48.6%, and tertiary industry from 28.2% to 40.1%.

- China's urban residents have grown for 10.6% of the total population in 1949, to 45.7% in 2008, and urban and rural areas have become more integrated in the country's economic and social development.

- China's total grain output was 113 million tonnes in 1949, or 209 kilograms a head per year. In 2008, the grain output increased to 529 million tonnes, the highest in the world. China's cereal, meat and cotton output are all the largest in the world.

- China became the world's second largest oil refiner in 2007. In 2008,the country's oil production totalled 189 million tonnes, 1581 times than that in 1949.

- China's foreign exports and imports registered 1.14 billion U.S. dollars in 1950, less than one percent of the global total trade volume. In 2008, this reached 2.56 trillion U.S. dollars, making up 8.86% of global trade.

- Maintaining the country's agricultural land is one of China's critical challenges. The area of cultivated land decreased by last year by 8.27 million hectares, to 121.8 million hectares.

- In 2009, China raised its poverty line to 1,196 yuan (175 U.S. dollars) per capita income. China's impoverished population totals 40.07 million people.

- Despite efforts to narrow the urban/rural development gap, urban residents earned 1.86 times more than farmers in 1988, but 3.33 times more than farmers in 2007.