Losers' game to bet against China pushing through needed reforms

A Chinese investor walks past a screen displaying prices of shares at a stock brokerage house in Hangzhou city, East China's Zhejiang province, August 20, 2015. [Photo/IC]

In a recent article published on ftchinese.com, David Schlesinger, former chief editor of Thompson Reuters, now founder and CEO of Tripord Advisors, wrote that we are bidding farewell to a Chinese century and blamed lack of transparency in China for causing the recent global market downfall. Comments:

Wage growth is running at about 10 percent annually; the pace of creation of nonagricultural jobs is stronger than in any recent year; both real disposable income and consumption expenditures of Chinese households are growing strongly. It is not the picture of an economy heading for a hard landing.

Naysayers question government economic data, continuing to focus on weakness in China's industrial sector and the extremely slow growth of electric power output. But steel production, for example, is significantly more energy intensive than entertainment, so the demand for electricity has fallen sharply as the structure of the economy has evolved.

Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Aug 31

China has the financial resources, the policy tools, and crucially - the political will - to meet its challenges. Past reforms have laid a solid foundation and expected new reforms will significantly improve the outlook for future growth. China's accelerating urbanization, rapidly expanding middle class, a strong human capital base, tremendous entrepreneurial energy and innovative potential portend an attractive prospect ahead. It is a loser's game to bet against China's new generation of reformist leadership.

Fred Hu, founder and chairman of Primavera Capital Group and member of Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council, Aug 26

It is exaggerating to predict a collapse of the Chinese economy. Considering the development of the service sector, deepening urbanization and development of the social security system, I am optimistic about the long-term prospects for the Chinese economy... I won't change my optimism unless the reform or economic structural adjustment cease.

Stephen Roach, former Chairman and chief economist of Morgan Stanley Asia and currently a senior fellow at Yale University, indirectly quoted by caijing.com.cn, Aug 26

Predictions about Chinese economic collapse emerge now and then, yet such forecasters forget China's huge potential. With a labor-age population of 920 milion, a comprehensive economic system and abundant supplies of various kinds of resources, China has all the potential needed to sustain its growth.

Zhang Yu, dean of School of Economics, Renmin University of China, Aug 25