China is playing down its new status as the world's second-largest economy, saying it still is a developing country and needs to focus on improving life for millions of impoverished Chinese.

The comments by a Commerce Ministry spokesman Tuesday reflected Beijing's unease about being seen as a developed economy with potentially costly obligations, even as rapid growth helps to expand the communist government's global influence.

"China is a developing country," said the spokesman, Yao Jian. "The quality of China's economic development still needs to be raised. It needs more effort to improve economic quality and people's lives."

China eclipsed Japan as the second-largest economy behind the United States after Tokyo reported Monday that gross domestic product for the April-to-June quarter was $1.286 trillion US, behind China's $1.335 trillion US reported earlier.

With a population of 1.3 billion, China ranks among the poorest countries per person, with an average income of $3,600 US last year, compared with Japan's $37,800 US.

China has more than 40 million people living below its official poverty line, Yao said.

"We should care not only about the gross domestic product data but also about per-capita GDP," he said.