I’m interested in the parts about the growth, the comprehensively deepening reform and environment. The president, Xi Jinping, is giving a great leadership, so we have to see how the whole Chinese system is responding to this leadership.

China’s growth target of about 7 percent this year came as what I’ve expected. I think a lot of commentaries in the western media are too negative on the Chinese economy and they are writing the death obituary incorrectly. The Irish writer George Bernard Shaw said famously once that rumors about my death are greatly exaggerated, and I believed the same about the Chinese economy. I am optimistic about the Chinese economy. A properly regulated environment is a great momentum-builder for growth, and the Chinese government wants to rebalance its growth.

-- Paul Kavanagh,

Irish ambassador to China