Growth challenges and gains

Since China has been a long-term engine for the global economy, its economic slowdown has understandably sparked worries among investors and policymakers.

But while the slowest pace in a quarter of a century may be an eye-catching summarization of China's 6.9-percent GDP growth in 2015, it fails to underscore China's contribution of about one-fourth of global growth in a tumultuous year. More importantly, it shed light on the progress of its strategic shift away from a dependence on investment and exports toward more sustainable growth driven by consumption and innovation.

While increasing volatility in financial markets and plummeting commodities' prices have made vigilance against a global slowdown necessary, pessimism about the $10-trillion Chinese economy, which expanded twice as fast as the world economy last year, is unwarranted.