China’s GDP growth target for 2013 was set at 7.5 percent in March, but just four months later, on July 11 at a press conference in Washington China’s newly established minister of finance, Lou Jiwei, seemed to suggest that Beijing no longer believed the country would hit the target.

China's GDP growth in recent decades has been impressive, but also, as former Premier Wen Jiabao put it, "unstable, unbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable." With growth slowing, China must now adopt a more sustainable model that focuses less on GDP and more on fostering innovation and competition.

Everyone is talking about China’s economic slowdown, writes Zhang Jun. But, as Premier Li Keqiang seems to recognize, this trend could actually be beneficial, spurring the structural reforms that China needs.

The Federal Reserve and the People’s Bank of China are on the same path to policy normalization, but for very different reasons, writes Stephen Roach.

China’s adjustment of its investment-income deficit for 2011 exposes flaws in economic growth, but hasn’t raised as much concern as it should. Two statistics account for China’s negative net investment-income, high return on foreign investment and China’s foreign assets are mostly US dollars. Without fundamental change, it is hard to imagine a sable Chinese economy in the long-term future.

Too often, debate about the relationship between the state and the market casts them as opposing forces locked in a zero-sum struggle. But this simplistic approach quickly renders constructive discussion a casualty of the ideological battle between advocates of state and market capitalism.

China’s successful transformation from a middle-income country to a modern, high-income country will depend largely on the reforms that the government undertakes over the next decade. But, because the most pressing reform – interest-rate liberalization – carries both risks and rewards, officials should be prudent in their approach.

China’s declining GDP has sent shockwaves through the financial sector as analysts begin to question China’s long-term economic strategy. As Minxin Pei points out, “zombie firms,” or companies primarily supported through bank loans and government subsidies, are complicating China’s sustained growth. By eliminating these firms and instituting reforms, China can bolster innovation and ensure the opening of its economic markets.

Although China’s slowing growth has caused a stir amongst analysts; He Weiwen explains China’s growth rate is not of concern.

 At 7.7%, China’s annual GDP growth in the first quarter of this year was slower than many expected. While the data were hardly devastating relative to a cons