Beijing, Jan 28 (IANS): China is the locomotive of the world economic growth train, said a commentary in a state-run Chinese daily that dismissed billionaire investor George Soros' statement that the country is headed for a hard landing.

Soros said at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos that China's economy is heading for a hard landing, a slump that will exacerbate the global deflationary pressures.

The commentary "Talking down to Chinese economy is groundless" in the People's Daily said that Soros's "talking down to the China’s market has led to widespread concerns and heated discussions".

"In fact, what Soros said was nothing new from any of the previous predictions claiming that China’s economy is about to 'collapse'. Only this time it becomes more baffling with the seemingly professional terms such as 'hard landing', 'deflation', and 'debt burden'."

The commentary said that if one gets into the lives of the locals in China, "one can hardly find any sign of depression or so-called 'collapse'."

"...the number of Chinese outbound tourists reached 120 million last year. And Chinese consumers can be seen everywhere in duty-free stores...For the United States, in the contrast, one out of eight families lived on food stamps and over 120,000 families filed for bankruptcy every month after the financial crisis. It is obvious that, even without any professional analysis, these simple and concrete observations are saying that the landscape of Chinese economy is prosperous," it said.

The commentary noted that China’s economic scale is 10 times larger than what it was 20 years ago, with per capita income increased by four times.

"The era has changed. If China could manage the 'soft landing' in the 1990s, then with the current inventories that China processes - the abundance of material resources, the more sophisticated the market system is, and more fruitful results of reform - the country surely will not let the economy fall."

It went on to say that China has a population of 1.37 billion, among which 900 million are working labours.

"Besides, China has 70 million market entities. With all these as the backdrop, Chinese economy is in good shape despite some ups and downs. The nation’s vast potential and its great resilience have made rooms for a healthy and sustainable development," it said.

"It is true that certain data might not seem promising, or that a few enterprises did undergo difficulties. Nevertheless, these are not sufficient indication of a long-term economic decline. It is nothing but a temporary pain from the reforms. We are at an essential stage that to undergo a more advanced economic form becomes inevitable and necessary. There is no need to worry excessively," the daily added.

The commentary observed that the outlook of Chinese economy remains promising, and "it is still a powerful engine to fuel up the economic recovery of the world".

"...The truth speaks for itself. China is the locomotive in the world economic growth train, whether they like it or not," it added.