Introduction

Some Western media often pessimize China's economy, question China's economic development achievements, deliberately distort facts and mislead the public.

This phenomenon reflects that the West’s views and narratives about China are based on two major prejudices: one is that China is inferior to the West, and the other is that China will cause damage to the world order when it becomes stronger.

In fact, China has set reasonable economic growth goals and its development momentum remains strong. It has always been the main driving force for world economic growth and its contribution to global development far exceeds that of the West.

　　In the news headlines of some mainstream American media, China's economic development seems to be in trouble, such as the following examples:

Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC): Facing difficult problems, China may not be able to think of new solutions

Time Magazine: China’s economy will continue to slump

"Wall Street Journal": Eight pictures to understand China's economic dilemma

　　…

　　These reports and similar news are deliberately guiding the public's perception, making people believe that China is entering a dark abyss of economic uncertainty, which will have a profound impact on China, the Chinese people, and the entire international community.

But we must be skeptical of such dramatic reports.

Why?

Because by combing through Western media’s hard news reports on China, it is not difficult to find that Western narratives about China are based on the following two main viewpoints:

　　The first point of view is that China is not as good as the West, so everything China does must be imperfect, inappropriate, or even bad.

　　For example, China has launched its first independently developed large passenger aircraft, the C919, in recent years.

An "expert" said that it is nonsense for China to call the aircraft "independently developed" because "what is unique about the C919 is that almost none of the components that allow it to fly come from China."

However, in fact, most parts of the aircraft are still produced in China.

Therefore, people cannot help but ask, is the reason why China's aviation industry has been so unfairly criticized because it is not yet capable of manufacturing its own aircraft engines or other major components?

　　If one day China possesses this capability, what will the Western media say next?

　　Then they will immediately come up with the second point of view: China is bent on destroying the world order established by the West. If China succeeds, it will bring huge destruction and disaster to the so-called "free world".

The Council on Foreign Relations, which usually has few positive comments about China, recently stated that China will support international actions that are in line with its interests, but will try to "sabotage" policies that are inconsistent with its goals.

Even if it is right, what about the United States itself?

The United States' attitude toward international consensus is often "use it if it works, discard it if it doesn't work." How should we evaluate this?

The United States has recently repeatedly blocked the adoption of UN ceasefire proposals on the Gaza crisis, which is the latest example of its stubbornness.

　　In other words, China, like other countries, has the right to promote and defend its domestic and international initiatives globally.

　　In short, you will definitely read about all kinds of "chaos" about China's economy in the Western media. At this time, you only need to keep in mind these two major prejudices, namely "they are inferior to us" and "they want to deal with us", and you will not be surprised. .

　　Let’s change our perspective and look at the World Economic Outlook released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in January this year.

The document shows that global economic growth is expected to reach 3.1% in 2024 and 3.2% in January 2025 due to upward revisions to growth expectations for "China, the United States, and large emerging market and developing economies."

　　The IMF predicts that China's GDP growth rate in 2024 will be 4.6%, which is much higher than any member of the Western Group of Seven. For example, the United States' growth rate is only expected to be 2.1%.

Despite this, Reuters also stated that the 4.6% growth rate was not good at all, believing that the Chinese economy may not be able to "achieve a strong and sustainable rebound in the post-epidemic period."

However, Reuters praised the 2.1% growth forecast for the United States, believing that "as the improvement in the U.S. economic outlook offsets the weakness in the euro zone, the global economy is expected to perform better this year than expected a few months ago... ."

　　The IMF has to remind people that "over the past 15 years, China has been the main driving force of world economic growth, contributing 35% of global nominal GDP growth, while the United States only contributed 27%."

　　On March 5, China’s 2024 government work report was released, in which China’s economy is expected to grow by 5% this year.

This figure is obviously reasonable, but it has been maliciously questioned by some Western media.

　　Just last week, Qian Jin, deputy consul general of the Chinese Consulate General in New York, responded to the US public opinion field's negative comments on China's economy.

He said that the fundamentals of China's economy, which is stable and improving in the long term, have not changed, and high quality is the distinctive theme of China's economic development.

He also quoted a report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2023 and pointed out that China is the country with the largest number of top 100 scientific and technological innovation clusters in the world.

　　Has any mainstream Western news organization reported or analyzed Qian Jin's remarks?

of course not.

The reason is simple, because the message he conveys is very different from the aforementioned negative reports about China.

So the next time you read an article about the Chinese economy, be sure to pay attention to which media outlet it comes from and think about its purpose.

If it's a Western media outlet or think tank, then you may want to look elsewhere for other perspectives.

　　This article was originally published in China Daily International Edition, with the original title "Western media piling on the gloom with intent"

　　Produced by: China Daily China Watch Think Tank

　　Interns Qin Jiale and Zhu Shiqi also contributed