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China's economic growth far from its peak
Updated 11:24, 26-Sep-2023
Christopher Helali
Drone light show is held over the Nanning Bridge, Nanning, China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, September 19, 2023. /CFP
Drone light show is held over the Nanning Bridge, Nanning, China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, September 19, 2023. /CFP

Drone light show is held over the Nanning Bridge, Nanning, China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, September 19, 2023. /CFP

Editor's note: Christopher Helali, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is the international secretary of the Party of Communists USA and a China Government Scholar for Sino-U.S. Cultural Communication at Tongji University, China. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Western media has in recent months heralded the decline of the Chinese "economic miracle." Analysts and reporters portray a sober future for China, claiming that we have already witnessed "peak China," and that stagnation and decline are China's future. 

Noteworthy headlines include "Is China Past Its Peak?" by The Wall Street Journal and the series "Peak China" by The Guardian. Bloomberg claims that China's economic slowdown means that China may never eclipse the United States to become the world's largest economy. More recently, there are reports in multiple Western media outlets claiming foreign investors are dumping China A-shares "at a record pace." Major Western news outlets publish these headlines and stories as part of the ongoing hybrid war against China.

Western elites salivate at the provocations and confrontations that they hope will bring about the collapse of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese state. They hope to carve up China like the imperialist powers did more than a century ago during an age of colonialism.

Yet, they once again have failed to fully grasp the reasons for China's magnificent rise over the past four decades. These detractors failed to acknowledge the enormous successes China has had domestically and internationally. Their newspapers, blogs, podcasts and books remain silent on China's achievements.

Western academics and think tank "experts" are quick to point out that China's rise is due only to the liberalization of the economy and the adoption of capitalist mechanisms. However, they rarely analyze how socialism with Chinese characteristics has unleashed the tremendous potential of China's population to serve not the ruling class but China's working class.

In 2022, China announced that it had lifted nearly 800 million people out of extreme poverty over the past 40 years. China remains firmly committed to its goals of providing for the well-being of its people and strengthening its ties with countries across the world. It provided for its people, meeting or exceeding expectations, even with a global pandemic that brutalized the country.

An aerial view of Xiamen City in southeast China's Fujian Province, September 29, 2021. /Xinhua
An aerial view of Xiamen City in southeast China's Fujian Province, September 29, 2021. /Xinhua

An aerial view of Xiamen City in southeast China's Fujian Province, September 29, 2021. /Xinhua

China's workers and farmers have reaped the enormous benefits of China's economic successes since the 1980s. It is the Chinese people who have continued to secure their sovereignty, territorial integrity and national pride since 1949.

There is no dispute that COVID-19 caused tremendous damages to China's economy and social life. However, China prioritized the needs of its people and saved countless lives due to its enforcement of strict guidelines. It is well on the path to economic recovery.

Recent economic data emerging over the past few years, especially following COVID-19, show China's economy, especially GDP, has begun to decline from the double-digit highs of a decade ago. This is not disputed. However, slowing down does not mean collapse or terminal decline. No. Rather, it means that China's economy has matured and growth continues to increase, just not at double-digit percentages.

China's GDP in 2022 was approximately 3 percent. In 2021, China's GDP was approximately 8.4 percent. In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, China's GDP was approximately 2.2 percent. This wide range must be understood within the context of the coronavirus pandemic which affected logistics, supply chains, and markets.

In that same period from 2020-2022, the GDP of the United States was approximately -2.8 percent, 5.9 percent, and 2.1 percent respectively. This same period shows some negative GDP growth for the United States whereas China experienced positive growth, albeit, smaller than in previous years. Why did no media outlet write articles about the economic decline of the United States?

This is because the narrative in the United States is controlled by an elite group of media executives who hold tight control over many of the news stories, and have historically worked with the U.S. government including the CIA to plant stories. Moreover, there is limited understanding of the Chinese people by the people in many parts of the U.S.

The population of the United States is approximately 330 million people. China's population is approximately 1.4 billion. That means that China is four times as big in terms of consumers. However, simply looking at the demographics is not enough. Further analysis is necessary. Knowing this fact, there are still experts who maintain that China will overtake the U.S., it is only a matter of time.

We must refute the alarmist propaganda emerging from the Western media that China is collapsing, that its economy is in decline and that the nation is near turmoil. These are lies promulgated by those who seek regime change in Beijing in much the same way as they oversaw botched regime change operations in Kabul, Baghdad and Tripoli.

China has stood up and will not be lectured to by Western powers who find themselves in terminal crises both economically and socially. China's ascendancy will continue in line with its vision for win-win diplomacy, mutually beneficial economic development and trade, and the expansion of trade routes through programs and policies like the Belt and Road Initiative.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow @thouse_opinions on Twitter to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)

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