In a more sustainable gear

China's 7.7-percent GDP growth in 2013 has been in the spotlight, as it is the slowest in more than a decade.

That is surely a correct reading of the speed at which the world's second-largest economy is expanding. But this should no longer be the defining gauge of China's economy as it undergoes a necessary transformation toward greater sustainability.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China's gross domestic product was 56.88 trillion yuan ($9.3 trillion) last year, up 7.7 percent year-on-year.