HARD LANDING

Beijing also wants to find common ground with Washington to avert trade war

BEIJING US President Donald Trump had threatened to label China a currency manipulator and impose hefty tariffs on imports of Chinese goods.

But officials in China, the world’s largest exporter and with a large trade surplus with the US, have generally struck a conciliatory tone, urging any disputes to be handled through discussions.

“I believe whatever differences we may have we can all sit down and talk to each other and work together to find solutions.”

Li, at his one news conference of the year, acknowledged that there were internal and external risks to China’s economy, but added that talk of a sharp slowdown should stop.

“Almost every year I have heard a prediction of the Chinese economy having a hard landing.

“But I believe that our economic performance in the past several years ... should suffice to put a full stop to such prophesies of a hard landing.”

China has cut its economic growth target this year to around 6.5 per cent from last year’s goal of 6.5 to

7.0 per cent, while vowing to push through reforms to tackle rising debt and guard against financial risks.