(ECNS) -- China did not collapse as predicted by the “China collapse theory,” nor will it peak as forecasted by the “China peak theory,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press conference on Tuesday.
Last week, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics Nicholas R. Lardy published an article on the website of Foreign Affairs titled “China Is Still Rising—Don’t Underestimate the World’s Second-Biggest Economy”.
It mentioned that U.S. academics’ recent view of China already peaking as an economic power underestimates the resilience of its economy. Although China faces several headwinds, the country overcame even greater challenges when it started on the path of economic reform in the late 1970s. China is likely to expand at twice the rate of the US in the years ahead.
“As President Xi Jinping stressed during his recent meeting with representatives of the U.S. business, strategic and academic communities, the Chinese economy is sound and sustainable,” Mao said.
She noted varying perspectives on China’s economy, saying that the widely shared view, however, is that China is among the fastest-growing major economies. As the second largest economy in the world, the Chinese economy has a solid foundation, remarkable resilience and enormous potential.
She introduced that, first, China is the only country in the world that has industries across all categories in the UN industrial classification and home to over 200 mature industry clusters. The size of China’s manufacturing industry has been the largest in the world for 14 consecutive years.
Second, China has over 400 million people in the middle-income bracket, and the number is on course to reach 800 million in the next decade or so. There are close to 300 million rural migrants who are acquiring permanent urban residency at a faster pace. It will create massive demand and significantly transform consumption in areas such as housing, education, medical services and elderly care.
Third, she added, China’s total input in research and development and investment in the high-tech sector have been growing at double-digit rates for several years running. China also tops the world in the number of patent applications and technology clusters. Fourth, the Chinese government is speeding up the cultivation of new quality productive forces. The effort has visibly given boost and support to high-quality development. Last but not least, more and more multinational businesses are investing in the Chinese market, which is a vote of confidence for China’s economic outlook. In January and February this year, 7,160 foreign-invested companies were set up in China, marking a year-on-year increase of 34.9 percent, which is a record high in the past five years.
“Facts speak louder than words. No matter how some people try to dampen the outlook on China’s economy, the overall trend of long-term growth will not change, China’s super-sized market and well-functioning industrial system remain its notable strengths, and factors underpinning the high-quality development are building up,” she said.
“Through its steady development, China will remain a strong engine and source of opportunities for the world economy,” she concluded
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