China is the world's second-largest economy which first suffered when the coronavirus first hit. Experts say that China has been preparing for a potential crisis for a long time.
Economist Sourabh Gupta further says that China, including Beijing, could not have foreseen the depth and gravity of the coronavirus pandemic such as the various parameters by which novel coronavirus spreads, as COVID-19 is a once in a hundred-year pandemic said Gupta who is a senior fellow at the Institute for China-America Studies, reported Russia Today.
Plus points
Gupta further explaining the Chinese central government's debt level as a percentage of GDP which he says is 'fairly modest,' while hem said that there is sufficient space on the government's balance sheet to support policies.
Consumers' debt levels remained modest when compared to their income, Gupta said so that people can spend even during the coronavirus crisis and were not over-leveraged.
Long term strategist
China always remained with the mind of long term strategy, said Andrew Leung, international and independent China strategist, adding that the country was prepared for any crisis as the country had a system of state capitalism.
"Funding and mobilization of businesses are more effective than the West as State could hugely fund them. This was seen during the 19997-98 Asian financial crisis and the global recession of 2008-09," said Leung.
Carnegie Moscow Center's expert on China and Central Asia, Temur Umarov said similarly that different economic situation in different nations would demand a different response to the COVID-19 pandemic citing that China worked on recovering domestic consumption while helping small and medium businesses. But, many countries focused on economic stimulus packages. However, these experts share a common point that agreed that China or other countries could not have foreseen a crisis of this magnitude.
Conspiracy?
In the background of rising coronavirus conspiracies saying that China deliberately created it to gain world economic power, these expert answers saying that China had inherent economic stability might suffice. Leung says that the country was the second-largest economy even before coronavirus hit.
Leung further said that "America's bad-mouthing" helped the "tsunami of negative views about China" as it became a pandemic. However, he says that the country remained the second-largest economy until now, that is bigger than the rest of the BRIC countries combined. While he also noted that China is the largest trading partner than the United States to many nations.
