Economists said China should remain optimistic about the country’s economy, but to be realistic as well.

At a recent seminar, Telling China’s good story and staying optimistic, at the People’s University of China, experts discussed China’s economic development trend, transformation of economic patterns and supply-side reforms.

Wu Xiaoqiu, vice president of the university, said that the future of China’s economy is promising. There are three reasons for such optimism: China’s strong leadership at the core, Chinese people’s intelligence and hard work and the essence of Chinese culture.  

The country has strong leadership, which has taken shape and gradually being realized by people after China’s Reform and Opening-up policy, Wu said. More people are beginning to understand a complicated China in a rational way, instead of being brainwashed. China has come closer to becoming a prosperous and strong nation in modern history.

Wu noted that China will not fall into the “trap of medium income” as entrepreneurship and innovation have improved China’s competitiveness. China also began its supply-side reform, which has helped reduce ineffective and low-quality labor.

The Chinese people are intelligent, diligent and dedicated. They have a sense of urgency, which makes them learn and think more, especially from others’ experiences, Wu added.

Bi Jiyao, deputy head of the Academy of Macroeconomics Research at the National Development and Reform Commission, said China’s modes, mechanism and policies have their own characteristics and five-year plans, which is important to economic development, industrial transformation and upgrading.

Russian experts have advised Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia should learn from China’s reforms and economic plans to stay competitive, Bi said.

Bi added China has clear goals in mechanism reform, political development and policy-making and has been consistently pushing its goals. Western countries are beginning to learn from China’s experiences.

Cao Heping, a professor at Peking University's School of Economics, said that many of the sharing platforms in China show the possibility of a non-segmented economy, including manufactured “sharing and non-competitive” products, instead of the traditional factory mode. China has enjoyed advantages thanks to its huge population.

China is experiencing unprecedented opportunities with the current resource structures and platform conditions, as well as with the significant changes of in the world economic structure in the past two years.

Meanwhile, senior economist Jia Kang said it is important to make a rational and comprehensive judgment on the Chinese economy and “tell a good story in a rational way.”

Although the speed of China’s economic development has surpassed that of the US,  China still lags behind in innovation, Jiang said.

Jiang added that only when the reform has achieved greater results can the country realize economic transformation and upgrading and avoid the “trap of the medium income,” and thus gradually enhance China’s soft power.