Ten years after its accession to the WTO, much has changed for China's role in the global economy. At the G20 summit earlier in November, Chinese President Hu Jintao reiterated the country will give zero tariff treatment to 97 percent of tariffed items exported to China from least developed countries with diplomatic relations with China.

Since July 1, 2010, China has offered zero tariff treatment to over 4,700 products from over 30 least developed countries, accounting for 60 percent of all Chinese taxable items.

Currently, China's overall tariff level is the lowest among all developing nations. According to the Ministry of Commerce, China's average tariff level has been lowered to 9.8 percent, from over 15 percent ten years ago.

Pascal Lamy, director general of WTO, said, "In WTO, China is now a senior member .... is a very good record."

During the past ten years, China's trade volume has grown tremendously and ranks second in the world. Both the country's import and export volumes have increased by nearly five fold.

Apart from attracting over $700 billion of foreign investment, China's investment overseas has also grown - to $60 billion in 2010, more than ten times the figure in 2001.

(CNTV.cn November 23, 2011)