Economic resilience proves China's ability in handling compounding crises

BEIJING - China's economic growth notched 9.8 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters, which indicates that, despite global downward pressure, the Chinese economy has maintained the recovery momentum and continues to play a stabilizing role for the world economy.

While some overseas observers noted that China's growth rate slowed down in the third quarter compared with previous ones, they admitted that the Chinese economy is expected to return to its pre-coronavirus trajectory.

Facing multiple risks, the Chinese economy does not lack bright spots: domestic consumption is coming back; the high-tech manufacturing sector has posted a strong performance; and the service sector's input for the overall economic growth continues to go up.

In the meantime, China's foreign trade is showing strong resilience despite disruptions in global supply chains. China's exports to major world economies, including the European Union, the United States, Japan and South Korea, all maintained a double-digit growth in the first three quarters.

"For months, economists have made the same prediction: the fast growth of China's exports cannot last. The economists were wrong," The New York Times said in a recent report, which highlights China's ability to navigate its economy in times of compounding tests and challenges.

The Chinese authorities always take into account both cyclical and structural elements of the economy, and give targeted policy support to weak economic spots, while avoiding flooding the economy with liquidity and keeping on optimizing China's economic structure. Beijing has also paid close attention to striking a balance between stimulating short-term recovery and fostering long-term growth like boosting green development.

Moreover, China has carried on with deep reforms to expand market access for foreign investments, upgrade its business environment and promote multilateral trade cooperation.

The Chinese authorities have also stayed wary of the headwinds facing the economy, cautioning against "rising uncertainties in the international environment and uneven recovery in the domestic economy," according to National Bureau of Statistics spokesperson Fu Linghui. He pledged that China will continue to "take various measures to keep the economy running within a reasonable range."

In March, the Chinese government set its annual GDP target for 2021 at over 6 percent although many had expected the growth to reach 8 percent or more. This would give Beijing "more room to deal with long-festering issues in the economy," said The Wall Street Journal.

Looking ahead, the Chinese economy is expected to continue to perform well. Latest forecasts on China's yearly GDP in 2021 by the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development all posted a rate of 8 percent or more.

As reporters of The Economist dug into stories of high-tech innovators in Hangzhou, nimble exporters in Wuxi and ambitious entrepreneurs in Wenzhou, all cities in east China, they found that "two of the fundamental underpinnings of China's economic dynamism remain intact: red-blooded competition in the private sector and the restless quest of millions upon millions of ordinary people to improve their lot in life."

Given China's determination to push forward reforms as well as its flexibility in policy, the Chinese economy is buoying confidence in the global recovery and will bring more development opportunities to other economies.