President Xi Jinping

The financial risks China faces are “not that scary”, President Xi Jinping said Sunday as leaders of the world’s second-largest economy look to transition from decades of super-charged growth to more sustainable expansion.

China’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at its slowest pace in five years in the third quarter, but Xi said the economy had entered a “new normal” that will be more beneficial to the country and the world in the long run.

“Some worry whether China’s economic growth rate will fall further and whether it can overcome difficulties,” he said in a speech opening an Asia-Pacific business meeting in Beijing.

“There are indeed risks but they are not that scary.”

Xi said China’s economy is becoming driven more by domestic consumer demand, as long advocated by economists, and away from an unstable dependence on investment and foreign trade, avoiding “external risks”.

Job creation and personal income are growing, he said, and inflation is under control.

But China’s economy — a key driver of global growth — is suffering from a deflating property bubble, a crackdown on corruption blamed for curbing some business, and weak demand from Europe.

Authorities have responded with limited stimulus measures to promote growth.

Xi was speaking at a gathering of business and political leaders from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region, which includes 40 percent of the world’s population, almost half its trade and more than half its GDP.

“For the Asia-Pacific and the world at large, China’s development will generate huge opportunities and benefits and hold lasting and infinite promise,” he said.

But he added: “We are also certainly aware that the new normal is accompanied by new challenges and new problems. In fact, some potential risks are already emerging.”

Xi did not elaborate, but he also offered the summit glimpses of China driven ‘Asia-Pacific dream’.

“We have the responsibility to create and realise an Asia-Pacific dream for the people of the region,” the Chinese Communist chief said

Such a dream, he said, was “based on a shared destiny of all of the Asia-Pacific” and incorporated peace, development and mutual benefits.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation area includes 40 percent of the world’s population, almost half its trade, and more than half its GDP.

China would focus on “managing its own affairs well” while looking to “bring more benefits to the Asia-Pacific and the world with its own development”, Xi said.

As “China’s overall national strength grows”, he told his audience, it would be able and willing to offer “new initiatives and visions for enhancing regional cooperation”.

“China wants to live in harmony with all its neighbours,” he added.

But Beijing is embroiled in enduring territorial disputes with Japan over islands in the East China Sea, and several of the countries around the strategically vital South China Sea.

Under Xi it has been asserting its claims more firmly in both areas.

Since taking office nearly two years ago Xi has regularly spoken of the “Chinese dream”, an unspecified but much-discussed term with connotations of resurgence, and he has spoken of “the revitalisation of the Chinese nation”.

Leaders from APEC’s 21 member economies, including US President Barack Obama, will hold a two-day summit beginning on Monday.

Xi noted that it would be impossible for China’s economy, now number two in the world after the United States, to continue growing at its previous pace, which regularly saw double-digit growth for about three decades.

The summit is expected to end with a joint communique on Tuesday reiterating regional commitments to work toward trade liberalisation in the vibrant Pacific Rim.

APEC finance ministers last month warned of increasing “downside risks” to the global economy, after China’s growth data came out, and called for the regional grouping to take the lead in bolstering growth.