Which nation's economy is struggling?

The media in the United States reports almost daily that the Chinese economy is heading down the wrong road. As one example, The New York Times has noted that the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee that concluded last month had not sufficiently oriented China's future economy toward consumers.

Meanwhile, China continues on pace to record growth at roughly 5 percent in 2024, the target set by the government at the beginning of the year. The World Economic Forum has stated that "economists and government officials say they are optimistic that China can reach its goal". In addition, the country's commitment to identifying areas of high-quality growth and promoting the green economy continues to draw accolades. Earlier this year, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said China "is already the global leader in deploying renewable energy, and is making rapid progress in green mobility. Its continued leadership is vital to addressing the global climate crisis".

The experts continue to say the same thing: China is moving in the right direction, and the concept of "Made in China" versus "Made by China" is still on track.

On the other hand, many of those same US media want their audiences to believe that the US economy is surging. They are emboldened in part by US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who remains bullish. A few days ago, he said: "You don't see any reason to think that this economy is either overheating or sharply weakening. That's just not in the data right now. What's in the data right now is an economy that's growing at a solid pace, a labor market that has cooled off, but, nonetheless, unemployment is low."

And what does "growing at a solid pace" mean? The most realistic projections place US growth in 2024 at roughly 2.5 percent.

Before you get caught up in all of the excitement, keep in mind that there is mounting evidence that the US is already in a recession. Just last week, the government reported that the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent, marking the fourth straight month that figure has gone up. Related to that, only 114,000 new jobs were created last month, a figure that looks worse when one realizes that roughly 250,000 jobs were being created per month just one year ago.

If the US economy does slide into recession, then Vice-President Kamala Harris might bear the burden. Not only has she served as President Joe Biden's number two for the past four years, but US people believe that she, not her opponent former president Donald Trump, is better able to guide the economy. Will they feel the same if more and more of their friends are suddenly unemployed and if growth estimates, not to mention the stock market, decline?

Keep in mind that 16 years ago, Republican presidential candidate John McCain's chances of election went up in smoke when the US economy fell apart. Granted, the drop is not nearly as sharp this time, but the fickle electorate might view Harris differently if she is considered even partially responsible for the domestic economic woes.

Two news items from last week highlight the reality of where the Chinese and the US economies could be heading. Sometime soon — the exact date is not yet known — WeRide, the China-based autonomous vehicle startup, is going public and will be listed on one of US' stock exchanges. According to one report, the "company is seeking a valuation as high as $5.02 billion in its initial public offering". WeRide already operates in seven countries and is conducting tests in the US. WeRide also has robobuses, robovans and robosweepers in its arsenal.

WeRide's general manager in Singapore, Kerry Xu, said: "We are not just a Chinese company, but more of an international company. We actually started expanding to other countries."

As WeRide looks confidently to the future, Intel, the company whose chips immediately come to mind when someone thinks of a PC, appears stuck in the past. The company's stock price cratered by 26 percent in just one day, which the British investment magazine MoneyWeek has suggested has been caused by its "focus on PCs" which meant it "missed the boom in demand for mobile phone chips".

Intel is expected to cut 15,000 jobs, identify $10 billion in cuts next year and cancel dividend payments later this year. Nevertheless, analysts acknowledge that Intel lags behind companies such as Nvidia and TSMC, and there is no guarantee that it can close that gap.

Of course, WeRide alone does not tell the story of how China's economy continues to be transformed. Likewise, Intel is not the only indicator of potential trouble for the US economy. Nevertheless, more nuanced analysis from the mainstream media appears necessary, especially now as US voters are expected to pay closer attention to the presidential candidates and also pay closer attention to how well their own household finances are doing.

The author is department head and associate professor of the Communication and Organizational Leadership department at Robert Morris University.