No fear of a hard landing

Panic responses to fall in China's growth rate are unwarranted because economy is on right track to meet this year's target

China's GDP grew by 7.8 percent in the first half of 2012, falling below the 8 percent psychological barrier, with the second quarter rate being as low as 7.6 percent, the sixth consecutive quarterly slowdown. This has created panic in some European and American media, and caused plenty of worry in China.

On July 16, The Wall Street Journal said China would drag the world economy into "another recession". On the same day, a commentary in Germany's Die Frankfurter Zeitung titled "The fear of China crash" even warned that China is facing a catastrophic economic crash.