In court of public opinion, actions better than words

Editor's note: China should exercise restraint when encountering disparaging voices, as the country's fast development over the past 40 years has unavoidably put it in the spotlight, Ruan Zongze, vice-director of the China Institute of International Studies, writes in an article published by Global Times on Tuesday. Excerpts:

According to its current growth momentum and the World Bank's standards, China will become a high-income country by 2023, which means it will soon overcome the middle-income trap that has shut the door of the high-income country club to dozens of developing countries, whose economies have long been mired in stagnation.

Nowadays, populism, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise as unfair national wealth distribution and delayed reform have resulted in public anger. Some politicians, who harbor mixed feelings toward China's rise, are unable to hold themselves back from making China a scapegoat for their countries' internal problems.