Birth pains of China's 'new normal' growth grip the globe

Shanghai

BEIJING is trying to manoeuvre the world's second-largest economy into a "new normal" of slower expansion, but alarms have sounded over whether the transition will hit global growth as a Chinese stock collapse reverberates across markets.

After decades of double-digit expansion that have utterly transformed China, the vision that Communist authorities hold out for the future is one of more sustainable growth, fuelled by domestic consumer spending rather than exports and investment.

But the shift is suffering from birth…