Spokesperson refutes Western rhetoric of China economy collapse

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday China's economy has continued to recover on a generally sound track of rebound amid the struggling world economic recovery and a challenging and complex external environment since the beginning of the year.

Mao Ning, the spokesperson, made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to recent comments in the United States and Australia, which talked down China's economy.

"All sorts of comments predicting the collapse of China's economy keep resurfacing every now and then, but China's economy has outlived them all," said Mao. "What has collapsed is such rhetoric, not China's economy."

She said that in the first half of this year, China's GDP grew by 5.5 percent year on year, notably faster than last year's 3 percent. The International Monetary Fund predicted that China's economy will grow by 5.2 percent this year, and contribute one third of the global growth.

"The Chinese economy's strong resilience, ample potential and strong vitality and the fundamentals sustaining China's sound economic growth in the long run stay unchanged," Mao said.

China will remain committed to high-level opening-up, enhance win-win cooperation and share development dividends with other countries, she added.