Commentary：Epidemic cannot stop China’s contribution to global economy
By He Yin，People’s Daily
China is currently racing against time in the battle against the novel coronavirus. To properly prevent and control the virus has a direct bearing on the safety and health of the Chinese people, the stability of China’s economy and society, as well as the country’s opening up.
Over the past few days, China has concentrated its efforts on epidemic prevention and control in severely epidemic-stricken areas, and coordinated the work on reform, development, and stability in other areas while guaranteeing sound epidemic control and prevention there.
The positive results in various aspects have demonstrated to the world that the Chinese economy has enough resilience to cope with uncertainties, and the economic fundamentals sustaining sound development will remain unchanged.
China has enough policy space to deal with the epidemic and economic downward pressure. Recently, the People’s Bank of China (PBC), the Ministry of Finance, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange have jointly issued 30 measures to support epidemic prevention and control and the real economy.
To ensure sufficient liquidity in the country’s financial markets, the PBC injected a total of 1.7 trillion yuan into the financial system on Feb. 3 and 4, sending a signal of strengthening counter-cyclical adjustments to stabilize market expectations. In addition, cities across the country are mobilizing and organizing key enterprises to resume production.
The World Bank said in a recent statement that it believes the Chinese authorities have policy space to respond to the novel coronavirus outbreak and maintain economic resilience.
Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva expressed that the IMF is confident that China’s economy “remains resilient”.
It is important to take a long-term perspective to evaluate China’s economy, as the trend of China’s long-term growth prospects will not change. The epidemic is temporary, and so is its impact. The epidemic will be defeated eventually, just like a rainbow will appear after the rain.
Over the past decades, China has experienced various ups and downs in its development, during which the country has overcome all challenges. As long as we look at the Chinese economy in an objective, comprehensive and dialectical manner, we can see that China is still very competent in face of risks and challenges.
China’s GDP is close to 100 trillion yuan, and its per capita GDP has exceeded $10,000. The country has a market of 1.4 billion people and a labor force of 900 million, among whom 170 million have received higher education or training in professional skills. Besides, it also boasts more than 400 million middle-income earners. It’s obvious that these elements underpinning the fundamentals of China’s economy will by no means be knocked down by the virus.
For a period of time, words such as ““strong” “powerful” and “success” have frequently been used by the international community to describe China. It is universally recognized that the bravery, strength and orderliness China demonstrated in the face of the epidemic come from the country’s endeavoring in the past 70 years.
In the era of economic globalization, the destinies of all countries are closely linked. The difficulties facing China are also the difficulties facing the world.
Affected by the novel coronavirus, the international financial market fluctuates every day, and global industries are looking forward to a release of production capacity and consumer demand which are temporarily contained by the epidemic.
China is the second largest economy in the world and an indispensable link in the global industrial chain. By mobilizing all forces to prevent and control the epidemic while doing the best to resume production, China is exactly making important contributions to the global economy at this critical moment.
This critical moment also calls for more mutual support and assistance among members of the international community to help each other get through the current difficulties.
It is worth noting that any voice that sings the blues over China’s economy is a blow to the worsening globally economy. The World Health Organization (WHO) lauded China’s strong measures and stressed for times that it disapproves of and even opposes imposing travel or trade restrictions on China. Such professional advice should be respected.
To provide more convenience for goods and services from China and goods exported to China conforms to the interests of the market players of various countries in various links of the global supply chain, as well as the common interests of all countries in the world.
Success only comes through hard work. It is believed that there are always more solutions than difficulties. China, which is resolutely deepening reform and expanding opening-up, has always accumulated energy while cracking hard nuts and answering to challenges.
“Heavy on the green pine the snow weighs, but the pine remains lofty and straight.” The epidemic will not crush China’s economy, nor will it hinder China’s development. International observers expect a strong rebound of China’s economy after the epidemic, which will surely make new and greater contributions to the common and high-quality development of the world economy.
