From The People’s Daily Online:
During its 10th Five-Year Plan Period (2001-2005), China had been dealing with the complicated world situation and domestic economic and social issues. It proves that China has stood the test of difficult situations and achieved its goal of fast economic development while still facing great challenges ahead.
The first year of the new century was full of turbulences. Hit by the economic recession in countries like the United States and Japan, the world economy had been slow down, the international financial markets in fluctuation, stock markets sluggish and exchange markets unstable. A United Nations report issued that year said the world economy had plunged into the lowest point in the previous decade or so.