英语时差：八大工业国不愿意正视中国存在

The Group of Eight (G-8) summit last month in Japan was the largest ever, but the G-8 has been unable to function as it should because of its structural problem. For one thing, mainland China, the world's third largest economy after the United States and Japan, is not a member. China is also the world's biggest polluter and the largest holder of foreign reserves. A G-8 excluding China is like the WTO or the U.N. without Chinese involvement.

Many of the eight-member club, in particular Japan and the U.S., are pretending not to see the elephant in the room -and it is no secret that Japan enjoys its role as top dog in Asia. A Chinese dragon would make the top dog an underdog.

China would be better off outside the G-8, anyway. China cannot afford to cut emissions to levels set for developed economies. Besides, China is still a developing nation, with a meager per capita gross domestic product of US$2,700 in 2007, only one-fifteenth of America's, and one-sixth of Taiwan's.

Of course, joining the G-8 would boost China's international prestige. But this would make little practical sense for China because it is already a major player in the world arena-a permanent member of the U.N. and the host of the Olympics this month, for example.