Amid the gloom hanging over China, a senior adviser to Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a rare defense of the country’s economy, saying Beijing has strong leadership to continue its effort to remake the country’s growth model while pledging not to launch massive stimulus to revive growth.
In an interview Wednesday with The Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum here, Fang Xinghai, a senior official in Mr. Xi’s economic-advisory team, urged global investors and businesses to focus more on China’s progress in putting the economy on a longer-term, sounder footing and less on the short-term growth rate.
“The transition of China’s economy from investment-led to consumption-led is taking place,” said Mr. Fang, a director-general in the Office of the Central Leading Group on Economic and Financial Affairs, which functions like the White House’s National Economic Council. “China will continue the transition path in 2016 and beyond.”
His remarks came as the world’s second-largest economy is increasingly becoming a source of instability for markets world-wide.
