BEIJING – While the rest of the world is struggling to contain the coronavirus, China’s recovery is gaining momentum, and it is positioning itself to close its gap with the US economy further.
Throughout China, restaurants and gyms are busy again. Metro cars and lounges for departure from airports are packed. Children are preparing to return to classrooms with some of the restrictions that U.S. officials say will be characteristic of life after the post-coronavirus. In some schools, children are asked to wear masks – but they do not have to wear them.
With the coronavirus now contaminated, thanks to draconian control measures, JP Morgan recently grew its growth of China in 2020 to 2.5% from 1.3% in April. Economists at the World Bank and elsewhere have also upgraded their forecasts for China, the only major economy expected to grow this year.
That bounceback, though far from China’s hefty expansions of recent years, should, however, be the no. 2 world economies are helping to accelerate faster with the US, which could shrink by as much as 8.0% by 2020.
It also reinforces Beijing’s belief that China’s state – led model, which helped the country navigate the 2008-09 financial crisis with minimal pain, is better than the US market system, and strengthens Chinese leaders in a time of growing geopolitical competition with the US
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