World Insights: What is behind Western negative opinions on China's economy?

Thanks to its massive market size, technological innovation, and robust development resilience, China can withstand external pressure and overcome internal difficulties. Indeed, its economy is rebounding, effectively refuting various pessimistic arguments.

BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Recently, some Western institutions have once more started to engage in pessimistic rhetoric about the Chinese economy.

 

They are using old tricks: First raise growth expectations, and then clamor about the figures that fell below the expectations. Their intention remains unchanged: to see the Chinese economy fail.

But they won't succeed.

Trapped in their "self-designed economic model," these institutions neglect the reasonable growth target set by China and the fundamentals of the Chinese economy. Any conclusions they make would only smear the Chinese economy while serving their own interests.

COMMON PATTERN IN THE WEST

"There is growth, but growth is not as good as expected; there are achievements, but the effect is not as good as expected..." Excessive praise first, then criticism. This has become a common pattern of U.S. and Western institutions in their attempt to manipulate the Chinese economy.

According to the economic data of the first 11 months of this year recently released by China's National Bureau of Statistics, China's economy is continuing its upward trend. Retail sales of social consumer goods increased by 10.1 percent in November year-on-year, up 2.5 percentage points from October, showing that the government's policy to expand domestic demand and promote consumption is continuing to have the desired effect.

However, some Western media organizations including the Wall Street Journal and Reuters have labeled the data as "less than expected." In a report, Reuters said the data "missed analysts' expectations of 12.5 percent."

According to their logic, China's November data needed to be at least 5 percentage points higher than October for it to be considered "qualified." The reason given for such a high expectation is the low base last year.

As early as the beginning of this year, when China optimized and adjusted its epidemic prevention and control policy, these Western media outlets created the same narrative: the Chinese consumer market would immediately go on a "vengeful" upsurge and the Chinese economy would rebound strongly. When the second-quarter data were released, they went around claiming that "China's economy is in big trouble."

Analysts believe that there is no empirical evidence to support the demand for a sharp increase in the year-on-year growth rate of China's retail sales in November.