Concerted efforts can help boost growth

Economy | Ed Zhang

No one should be mistaken about the strengths and weaknesses of China's economy, based on its growth records of the first half of 2014. It has the unquestionable ability to deliver continuing growth, despite many short-term problems. But its ability to deliver reform, which Chinese sometimes call transition, is still in question.

To be sure, there won't be a major crash of any sort - in the bursting of a real estate bubble or in sweeping defaults of local government debts or in huge stockpiles as a result of massive manufacturing overcapacity. Alarms were sounded quite a few times about such a crisis, but none has materialized.