China’s top economic official has dismissed mounting fears that decades of breathtaking expansion was beginning to falter in the face of a US trade war, insisting “sustainable growth” in his country would be maintained.
Wang Qishan, China’s vice-president, acknowledged there were risks facing Beijing as well as other major economies, including “unilateralism, protection and populism”, an apparent reference to US president Donald Trump’s trade policies.
But he insisted China’s growth rate in 2018 of 6.6 per cent, which slowed to its lowest level in almost three decades at the end of last year, was still “a pretty significant number, not low at all”. He added that while “speed does matter”, it was the “quality and efficiency” of growth that was more important.