G20 pessimism rules on Chinese websites

By Zhang Haizhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-01 07:40

Most Chinese are pessimistic about what the G20 summit can achieve, and believe China should keep a clear head while the rest of the world is appealing to Beijing for more money.

As many as 77 percent of about 15,000 netizens polled by portal Sina.com chose "no" when asked if they thought participating countries could come to an agreement.

Nearly 60 percent didn't think the summit could improve the global financial situation, while only 17.6 percent said it would.

Survey: What should be China's position in terms of contributing to IMF? 1. Give as much as China is asked 2. Give more contributions according to China's capability 3. Do not increase the contributions

As leaders from participating states have been flooding into London over the past two days for tomorrow's summit, a gap still exists between the world's major economic powerhouses.

Michael Pettis, a professor of international finance at Tsinghua University, pointed out that the three major participants - the US, Europe and China - are divided on the root and the solutions of the crisis.

US President Barack Obama called for "unity" between the summit's participants during an interview with the Financial Times newspaper, but what Washington wants - more stimulus packages - has always been opposed by European countries like Germany and France.

By contrast, what the European powers are looking for on the G20 is "re-regulation of the financial framework", Pettis said.

But China, according to him, has blamed the crisis on "out-of-control lending" in the Western world.

"The upcoming G20 summit in London is going to be a failure," Pettis said.

Other online polls also show Chinese pessimism toward the summit.

On Sohu.com, another Chinese portal, only 30 percent of nearly 80,000 netizens thought the financial crisis would end in one year, while 35 percent said it would not finish in two years.

As many as 70 percent of nearly 1,000 netizens polled by the China Daily website said Beijing should "give contributions according to China's capability".

Only 38 netizens thought the country should "give as much as China is asked".

The West has been calling for China to give more money to the International Monetary Fund.

"There's no reason for a developing country to 'heal the world'. It's like asking a poor farmer to pay to save the rich guys," an Internet user named Lixing, literally meaning rationality, posted on Sina.com.

"Despite being the third largest economy in the world, we are actually a poor country according to per capita GDP," the netizen said, noting that as a fresh graduate from a top university, he or she earns only 3,000 yuan ($430) per month.

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