China’s economic development belies prediction of doomsayers

IN THE CONTEXT of the trade frictions between China and the United States, the macroeconomic data for the first half of this year released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday, which showed China’s economy is generally stable and making new progress in promoting high-quality development, has injected new confidence into the world economy. Zhong Sheng, a columnist for People’s Daily, comments:

However, some in the US, fearful that people do not “misread” China’s economic performance, once again enthusiastically claimed that the Chinese economy has slowed, and that US tariffs on China have had a major impact on many companies that want to leave China for “non-tariff” countries.

In stark contrast to this pessimistic tone, the rest of the international community has captured the key “stable” message from China’s economic data. Against the backdrop of the global economic slowdown and facing headwinds from rising protectionism and multiple challenges brought by its own cyclical, systematic and structural factors, China has followed a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy, focusing on supply-side structural reform and adopting timely and more aggressive countercyclical measures such as tax cuts and fee reductions, which have kept key indexes such as economic growth, employment and prices within a normal range.

China’s confidence, its strategic resolve, its vigorous efforts to promote further opening-up to the outside world and its solid action to promote high-quality economic development have become an important driving force of the world economy. China’s encouraging economic data for the first half of the year eased market concerns over global economic slowdown, as Reuters reported.

A series of economic indexes that can overshadow most countries in the world fully demonstrate that China’s economic restructuring continues to produce positive effects, the shift from old to new economic drivers continues to accelerate, and the vitality of its market players is being released. At the same time, the ever-closer links between the Chinese and world economies and China’s increased opening-up to the outside world indicate that China has become increasingly integrated with the world, which will promote the common growth of the world economy and the healthy development of economic globalization.

According to a recent report released by McKinsey Global Institute, China has made great progress in its integration into the world economy and has become a trading power with global influence. This, together with a series of positive comments made by many other research institutions around the world, indicates that China’s economic performance cannot be distorted by anyone.