December 22, 2005
BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair has raised the prospect of the Group of Eight becoming the Group of Nine, or even 10, after a dramatic surge in China's GDP growth figures. "I would find it hard to imagine that you are going to have future G8 summits at which they aren't, in some shape or form, participating," he said.
"The formal structure obviously has to be agreed by all (G8) members."
The exclusive club of the world's leading industrial nations currently includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. China took another great leap forward yesterday as it upgraded growth estimates by nearly 17 per cent or $US284 billion ($387.4 billion) for 2004, an unprecedented move that could rank it as the world's fourth-largest economy.
With the revision, China officially overtook Italy to rise from seventh to sixth in the global rankings after the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain and France. But political analysts in Beijing said that by now, China was very likely close to fourth place based on its real growth rate, as opposed to official data, and dollar exchange rates.
Mr Blair, who visited Beijing and New Delhi in September as part of Britain's turn at the rotating European Union presidency, said he did not believe that China had yet overtaken Britain in the GDP league tables.
But he said: "At some point, I'm afraid, the Chinese economy is going to overtake not just Britain, but Japan and Germany and eventually the United States. That's just the way it is."
China's economic growth, he said, was "the dominant force that is driving everything" in the world, given its hunger for energy and raw materials and its cheap labour.
In an end-of-year press conference, Blair noted that China and India already play a role at G8 summits - like the one he hosted at the Gleneagles resort in Scotland in July - albeit to a limited extent.