Sino-US trade friction's impact on Chinese economy limited, controllable: Official

BEIJING - Trade frictions with the United States have a limited and controllable impact on the Chinese economy, an official from China's top economic planner said Wednesday.

"China has prepared multi-level response plans and backup policies for the US-initiated trade frictions," Yan Pengcheng, spokesperson of the National Development and Reform Commission, told a press conference.

Supply-side structural reform and new growth momentum have laid a solid foundation to prepare China for the external impact, he said, citing the reassuring performance of China's economy in the first quarter.

China's economy demonstrated its resilience by delivering a solid start to the year with GDP expanding 6.8 percent year-on-year at comparable prices in the first quarter, official data showed.

"China, with a population of nearly 1.4 billion, has a huge domestic market, and even if the east goes dark, the west still shines," he said.

"We are confident and capable of sustaining the stable development of our economy," he said.

While certain sectors of Chinese exports will be affected to some extent, consumers and related manufacturers in the United States will pay the price of US protectionism, Yan said.

"We hope to work together with other countries to conform to the trend of the times and create a more favorable environment for globalization and cross-border investment," he said.