China maintains highest growth in recent year

BEIJING: China's economy has defied growing risks and downward pressure this year, with "sustained and sound development" as summed up by a key annual economic meeting held here. It was noted that the country's GDP expanded 6.2 percent year on year in the first three quarters of 2019, the fastest growth among all economies with annual output above 1 trillion US dollars.

Employment has been stable, manufacturing activity has rebounded, while foreign trade and direct investment inflows are continuing to grow. The basic trend of the Chinese economy maintaining steady growth toward long-term sound development remains unchanged, says a report published by China Economic Net (CEN).

To find the key to China's resilience, one has to delve into its economic system, observers said.

China's capability of navigating through external and domestic headwinds reflects the time-tested wisdom of creating synergy between the socialist system and the market economy.

"By integrating the advantages of the socialist system and market economy, China can fully unleash the vitality of the market and at the same time ensure stable operation of the economy to avert economic crises," He Zili, a professor at Nankai University School of Economics, wrote in an article.

While market economy features management autonomy, free flow of factors and competition, it is often marred by blindness, speculation and short-sightedness.

These weaknesses can be contained by the socialist system, which promotes economic balance and social harmony via such vehicles as SOEs and policy planning, according to He.Thanks to the unique advantages of a socialist market economy, China achieved average annual GDP growth of 9.4 percent between 1979 and 2018 at constant prices, well above the 2.9-percent rate the world economy logged in the same period.

In China's economic system, government and market roles are not contradictory but two sides of a coin.

This feature has underpinned China's economic resilience in the past and will hopefully continue to do that in the future.China's central and local governments are engines driving its economic development, by providing macro-level guidance, ensuring stability for a super-large country, and attracting investment and creating jobs and income via such resources as taxes, land and policies, said Zhang Weiwei, head of China Institute, Fudan University.

In the Communist Party of China's roadmap to better turn institutional strength into even more effective governance, unveiled in a milestone document adopted by central authorities in late October, establishing a high-standard market system is a direction made clear.

Meanwhile, the functions of the government will be improved in economic regulation, market supervision, social management, public services and environmental protection, according to the document.

"The socialist market economy is essentially a mixed economy -- a fusion of the invisible and visible hands, market and government forces, and state-owned and private sectors," Zhang said.

The public sector and the non-public sector of the Chinese economy have flourished side by side since reform and opening up, forming "an ecosystem for diverse forms of ownership to closely intertwine with each other," said Han Baojiang, a researcher at the National Academy of Governance. A total of 129 Chinese enterprises entered the Fortune 500 list in 2019, including 48 centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the report added.