Our economy not in free fall: Chinese Ambassador to India

Amidst reports about the steep decline of China’s economy, its Ambassador to India Xu Feihong has asserted that the Chinese economy is still the primary engine of global growth, contributing more than 30 per cent to the world economy.

In a newspaper article today, he went on to add, “Decoupling from China would mean decoupling from opportunities, from the future and in a sense, even from the world.” He objected to some Indian media outlets running headlines like ‘China’s economy in free fall.’ Some, he dolefully wrote, even advocated “decoupling and de-risking” from China.

He went on to say assert that “China’s economy is not in free fall, and will not be in free fall. A volatile external environment, coupled with internal economic restructuring and short-term natural disasters, has led to a slowdown in China’s GDP growth in the third quarter [4.6 per cent]. Nevertheless, from a long-term perspective, the quarter-on-quarter GDP growth rate has been up for eight consecutive quarters.”

Furthermore, he wrote, the development of the high-tech manufacturing industry demonstrates the strong indigenous power of China’s high-quality economy. “The output of green industries, represented by the ‘new three’ items, electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products, maintained double-digit growth. These indicate that the quality of China’s economy has steadily improved.”

China is confident of realizing its 2024 targets, Xu wrote. “The Chinese government recently launched a new stimulus package whose breadth, depth and intensity are unprecedented. On the one hand, concrete measures have been introduced to boost the stock market and real estate market and support small and medium-sized enterprises. This will stimulate consumption, improve people’s livelihood and promote residents’ asset status.”

On the other hand, he wrote, market barriers are to be reduced. The burden on enterprises and local governments will also be relaxed. As a result, retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment figures improved moderately in September.”

China is by no means a “risk,” Ambassador Xu wrote. “Instead, the Chinese economy is still the primary engine of global growth, contributing more than 30 per cent to the world economy. Decoupling from China would mean decoupling from opportunities, from the future and in a sense, even from the world. In fact, international investors have already voted with their feet. In the first half of this year, 26,870 new foreign-invested companies were set up in China, up by 14.2 per cent. Foreign investment in actual use reached nearly 500 billion yuan ($69.8 billion), a relatively high level over the past decade. Tesla is building another factory in Shanghai... Apple has established R&D centres…”