China basks in APEC limelight

LIMA (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao took one more wary step on the global financial stage this weekend, using a regional summit to present his government as responsible, engaged and yet unready for a starring role in rescue efforts.

Hu told the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit ending on Sunday that his government wants to help shore up worldwide growth and reform global financial rules.

But his vows in Peru's capital, Lima, came tied to caveats that Beijing, saddled by worries about flagging growth, must focus on domestic priorities, not bailing out ailing foreign economies and financial institutions.

"We are ready to work together with the rest of the international community to preserve stability of international financial markets," Hu told leaders and officials from 20 other governments at the annual summit on Saturday.

"At the same time, we are keenly aware that China remains the largest developing country in the world, and the difficulties and problems we face in the course of development are rarely seen elsewhere in terms of both their scale and complexity."

It is a double-edged message of can-do and caution that other leaders will hear often as they seek to coax Beijing into doing more to replenish International Monetary Fund coffers, revive trade liberalization talks and rewrite global financial rules.

Beyond the diplomatic limelight, Beijing officials worry about slowed growth and a ripple of social protests at home, alarming for a ruling Communist Party that makes stability a top priority.

China's annual GDP increase slowed to 9.0 percent in the third quarter from 10.1 percent in the second -- fast by most standards, but worrisome for a nation with hundreds of millions of poor or under-employed farmers and blue-collar workers.

"China cannot and does not have the ability to be the hero saving the fair maiden," Cheng Siwei, former deputy chief of China's National People's Congress, said of international hopes of his government's contribution to global economic recovery.

"China does not want to take the leadership but to share responsibility," Cheng told a forum in China, the state-run Guangzhou Daily reported on Saturday.

'STEALING THE LIMELIGHT'

China's rising profile has been on show in Lima, the final stop in Hu's regional tour, during which he also sealed trade, aid and investment deals with Costa Rica, Cuba and Peru. Next he heads to Greece.

"China, this developing country, has stolen the limelight at these meetings," a commentary by the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday of APEC and other recent summits. "Stealing the limelight because China's national strength has ... achieved a massive transformation from weakness to strength."

Hu's speeches at APEC suggested China is becoming more comfortable in using that clout to spell out its own agenda for the global economy.

He joined other APEC leaders in vowing to seek progress in the stalled World Trade Organization talks to lift trade barriers on agriculture, industry and services.

But he also said wealthy nations must give more to developing economies in return for liberalizing steps. And he said his government wants the Third World to have a bigger say in global financial and monetary policies.

China appeared sincere about seeking to boost international trade and growth but is wary of being treated as a standard bearer expected to lead other developing countries, said Myron Brilliant, vice president for Asia of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in Lima for talks with officials from APEC economies.

"I think they understand they have a big role to play, and it's a question of what that role will be exactly," Brilliant told Reuters.

As the G20 summit in Washington last weekend and now the APEC meeting open the way to more high-level talks on the world economy, China will keep edging toward greater activism, while fending off the demands roused by its huge foreign exchange reserves and exports, said a Beijing-based expert.

"I think the gap is widening between international society's expectations of China and China's pursuit of its own international influence," said Zhu Feng, an international politics professor at Peking University.

(Editing by Terry Wade and Cynthia Osterman)