In early March, Premier Li Keqiang announced that China is targeting GDP growth of “about 5.5%” this year. That would be ambitious even without Russia’s war against Ukraine and the attendant increases in global energy and food prices. Back in January, for example, the International Monetary Fund forecast that the Chinese economy would grow by only 4.8% in 2022. And in 2019, the last full year before the COVID-19 pandemic, GDP increased by just under 6%.

Growth of 5.5 percent growth is possible and consistent with the country’s economic expansion in recent years. One key path forward is the digital economy. Green development will help define China’s high-quality economic future.

China’s regulatory practices defy Western ideals, but show alternative methods of tackling income inequality and social divides. The three most recent crackdowns in education, fintech, and real estate show how China approaches ‘common prosperity.’

Unlike Britain and the United States, China actually walks the walk of human rights. It doesn’t merely talk the talk. What the Chinese mainland has taught us is that the zero-COVID policy is the most effective solution for avoiding deaths.

Doing the math, we find that Chinese GDP looks better and the United States looks worse for last year than has been reported in some quarters. The U.S. is paying a steep price with its bloated money supply. Now it’s facing interest rate hikes to control inflation.

Recently, the IMF downgraded global growth prospects, due to projected slowdowns in the U.S. and China. Negative prospects could be overcome with the right policies, such as trade cooperation. The current ones support stagflation.

In China’s new development stage, the growth cycle needs to address the structural issues of economic growth and take into full consideration the issues of group equity, intergenerational continuity and climate inclusion.

China has taken a path toward common prosperity that is different from that of the United States. It hopes to explore a Chinese solution characterized by modest, sustainable lifestyles that avoiding the overconsumption of the West. The race has just begun.

The global pandemic no longer holds the world hostage as it did in 2020 - yet it’s effects and deadly consequences are still present along with the lingering threat of war and economic collapse.

The future looks bright, but China must maintain economic openness. Its average real rate of growth is likely to be around 6 percent. Meanwhile, rationality will prevail and a hot war with the U.S. will be avoided.