There’s an old proverb: “If you want to drown your dog, accuse it of rabies”. With its strategy of sabotaging the Chinese economy, the United States has taken the ruse a step further: accusing China of having rabies isn’t enough, you have to give it the disease.

In parallel with this ostracism of certain sectors of the Chinese economy, the Western media repeatedly claim that the Chinese economy is in bad shape, and even on the brink of collapse. According to these birds of ill omen, the golden age of Chinese economic growth is over.

Fabricating self-fulfilling prophecies

Washington and its affiliates present China’s economic indicators as a succession of disasters resulting from the Chinese government’s misguided economic policies.

According to this narrative, China’s growth is at half-mast due to a misallocation of resources by the Chinese authorities. These errors of judgement are said to have led to a widespread domino effect: provincial indebtedness is becoming unsustainable, the real estate sector is collapsing, companies are making less profit, youth unemployment is soaring, consumer prices are falling, and so are wages and confidence. The volatility of China’s stock markets is also invoked to support the Western narrative. – And if we add to this the ageing of the population, then there is definitely reason to believe that the Chinese economy is in terminal decline.

Of course, behind this cataclysmic portrait lies the aim of undermining confidence: of domestic demand, of investors and of Beijing’s partners. For it should not be forgotten that this portrait pretends to ignore the avalanche of trade restrictions imposed on China by Washington and its satellite countries, which are bent on reducing, and in some cases banning, trade with Beijing. These maneuvers reveal that the real aim of the Western bloc is to limit China’s economic and commercial competitiveness – and, by extension, the development of its partners in the........

© New Eastern Outlook