The skyline of Lujiazui in Shanghai Photo: CFP

Some Western media outlets have been churning out a flurry of vociferous columns bad-mouthing and smearing the Chinese economy, with increasingly gloomy and scary headlines. However, the dire prediction about the Chinese economy is only imagination and propaganda of some Western politicians and media outlets to distract their domestic audiences from domestic issues while discouraging other countries from cooperating with China out of fear that the world’s second-largest economy may become No.1, experts said.

The reality is that Chinese economy is well on the recovery track with increasingly strong innovation and green development momentum, though the economy faces some difficulties and challenges under the impact of global economic slowdown. Like the nirvana of the phoenix, China’s economy always thrives after growing pains and the threadbare “China collapse” theory will turn out to be a total lie, they said, noting that China’s economic miracle will carry on.

Tsunami of misinformation

While voices claiming “China’s collapse” never stops when there is a slight slowdown in the Chinese economy, the headlines keep getting appalling. “How Scary Is China’s Crisis?” an article in the New York Times written by famed US economist Paul Krugman read. The newspaper went even further, as one article, written by another famed New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, sought to address how the US may “manage China’s decline?” Bloomberg asserted in an article published on Tuesday that “China slowdown means it may never overtake US economy.” Reuters claimed on Monday, “Part of China’s economic miracle was a mirage.”

Dismissing highlights in the Chinese economy so far this year, intensive government policies to revive the economy and profound industrial upgrade that promotes high quality growth, these media outlets have been fixated on certain economic indicators in China to hype various dire claims about the country’s economic outlook. A New York Times column went on to hype up “growing China threat,” saying that US policymakers should be “unbending and uncowed” on issues including the South China Sea, the island of Taiwan, the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“There is no surprise that Western media and politicians push the ‘China collapse’ and ‘China threat’ theories, as China having made great economic achievements with non-US growth model shatters modern-is-Western myth,” Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Ignoring profound risks and challenges in the US economy, US President Joe Biden recently called China’s economy a “ticking time bomb,” while US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reportedly called China’s economy a “risk factor” for the US.

By painting a gloomy picture of the Chinese economy, US media and politicians aim to distract domestic audiences from domestic issues ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, weaken global confidence in China’s economic prospect and damage China’s complete industrial chain advantage, Wang said. “As the US is attempting to reconstruct the global industrial and supply chains to contain China’s technological rise, the US wants to see slowdown in the Chinese economy so as to pressure the US’ allies to follow it and decouple from China.”

Apart from wishful thinking and ideological prejudice, some Western media and politicians are using outdated Western economic theories created during the industrial era to evaluate China’s crucial digital transition. They will never have the right conclusion on the prospect of the Chinese economy, Wang said.

A worker works at a motor stator and rotor workshop of a company in the Western Science City in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, Aug. 24, 2023. In recent years, Chongqing’s Western Science City has vigorously implemented the intelligent manufacturing cultivation project, guiding enterprises to accelerate the intelligent transformation and digital transformation and upgrading, and helping local industries to improve quality and efficiency. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)