China's economic growth defies Western naysayers

BEIJING, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of consumption strength, went up 4.6 percent year on year in August, 2.1 percentage points faster than the previous month, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed last Friday.

When some in the West once again bad-mouthed China's economy, many international observers say otherwise. Seeing the rosy picture of the country's steady recovery, they have pointed out that the Chinese economy is resilient, vigorous, and poised to secure an overall upward trend.

People visit the ancient city wall scenic spot in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, April 30, 2023. (Photo by Zou Jingyi/Xinhua)

STEADY RECOVERY

China's economy has continued to recover on a generally sound track of rebound.

In the first half of this year, China's GDP recorded a 5.5-percent growth, notably faster than last year's 3 percent, and the fastest among major economies. The IMF predicted that China's economy will grow by 5.2 percent this year, and contribute one-third of the world growth.

China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, went up 4.5 percent year on year in August, latest data showed. The figure for the service production index is 6.8 percent, 1.1 percentage points faster than last month.

"All indications point to a healthy growth," Khairy Tourk, professor of economics at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

A worker inspects a vehicle before it rolls off the production line at an automobile manufacturing factory in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 14, 2023. (Photo by Zhang Jingang/Xinhua)

Speaking of what is at play here, he said Chinese policymakers are well known for their long-term thinking.

In early September, China set up a bureau under the country's top economic planner specializing in promoting the private economy's development. This followed a raft of policies to ramp up the growth of the sector.

"The resilience of the Chinese economy can be attributed to targeted policies designed to bolster growth, such as the recent unveiling of 31 measures by the central government to stimulate the development of private companies," said Luigi Gambardella, chairman of the China-Europe Digital Association.

He believes that looking in the long run, China still enjoys a promising future of long-term growth.

More signs show the economy is rebounding. "Domestic tourism is broadly picking up. Car sales in China are still up this year despite a small decline in June and July. Alibaba just reported a return to strong sales growth in its second-quarter results," The Financial Times wrote in its recent markets insights.

TRANSITION FOR THE BETTER

Buoyed by emerging competitive industries and sectors, China's economy is transforming from high-speed growth to high-quality growth. This is making the economy more durable.

The first seven months of this year saw China's investment in high-tech industries climb 11.5 percent from last year, notably faster than the growth of its overall investment. In July, the output of solar cells and new energy vehicle products grew by 65.1 percent and 24.9 percent respectively.

Employees work at a solar energy battery workshop of Shine Earth New Energy Co., Ltd. in Nan'an, Quanzhou City, southeast China's Fujian Province, June 17, 2023. (Xinhua/Liu Yongzhen)

Commenting on the new drivers of China's economy, Nasdaq Vice Chairman Robert McCooey said the next generation of companies that are focused on some of the most innovative technologies are being built there in China.

"People were continuing to build innovative businesses, and it shows why the Chinese economy continues to be so strong, and one that will continue to be strong for decades to come," McCooey told the U.S.-China Business Forum recently held in New York.

"You are talking about an economy that generates more engineers than any other country in the world every year, and so from innovation, I think there are going to be opportunities (for investment)," said Jenny Johnson, president and chief executive officer at global investment management firm Franklin Templeton.

Spiked, a British Internet magazine on politics, culture and society, holds that China's resilience to disruptions is different from the West primarily because of the strength of its production fundamentals. China is still unquestionably the world's manufacturing superpower, responsible for nearly 29 percent of global manufacturing output, the magazine said in an article.

China "currently leads the world in the production of electric vehicles, electric car batteries, 5G telecommunications equipment, commercial drones, Internet of Things devices, mobile payments and solar cells," which are "indicators of China's continuing economic durability," it said.

UNTENABLE RHETORIC

"I don't actually buy the notion that the Chinese economy is in serious systemic trouble," Chris Torrens, vice chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, said recently in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

Rather, its growth is moving in the right direction as consumer spending picks up, he said.

It is an overhyped idea that investment opportunities in China have met their demise, Franklin Templeton CEO Johnson told a session at the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore.

Against naysayers, more have faith in China's potential.

"If we take the experience of other developed economies as a reference ... then China's middle-income group has the potential to double from its current size," South China Morning Post recently said in an article.

The outlook will make China an irresistible market for multinational companies, it noted.

A transport vehicle delivers the installed power battery system parts at a workshop of SAIC-CATL Motor Power Battery System Co., Ltd. in Changzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, Feb. 16, 2023. (Xinhua/Li Bo)

In a July opinion piece for New York Times, Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman said that the Chinese economy is still well behind the technological frontier, so it should have better prospects for rapid productivity growth.

"More American friends have come to realize that the notion that China could economically collapse ... is utter fantasy," Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng wrote in a recent article published by The Washington Post.

Regarding the surfacing now and then of predictions that China's economy will collapse, the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said, "What has collapsed is such rhetoric, not China's economy."