beijing (cnn)china's premier on sunday offered a sobering assessment of the world's second largest economy amid fears of a sustained slowdown but brushed aside concern that it could face a full blown economic crisis 'i don't deny that the chinese economy is facing downward pressure and multiple risks,' said li keqiang at a nationally televised press conference 'the key is to find the balance between stable growth and structural adjustments under the new normal (of slower growth)' 'we haven't adopted the policy of strong short term stimulus in recent yearsin other words we still have plenty of tools in our toolbox,' he offered earlier this month, the people's bank of chinathe central bank   cut interest rates to guard against deflation and the country set its lowest growth target in 25 years li, the no 2 leader in china behind president xi jinping, also promised a further streamlined government to strengthen the role of free market in the economy 'the pain of reform is still there, actually the pain is becoming more acute and in more places,' he said 'during the course of reform, vested interested will be testedbut this is not nail clipping, this is like cutting off one's limb with a sword and we have to do it despite the pain' li held the highly choreographed annual press conferenceoften the only occasion a senior chinese leader faces the mediaafter china's rubber stamp parliament approved the government budget and concluded this year's 10 day session li answered questions from pre selected journalists that focused on the economy and touched on the government's stance on the anti corruption campaign, the environment and foreign policy before he was ushered out of the ornate room, the premier responded to a question shouted from the audience about myanmar, whose warplanes reportedly dropped a bomb friday in a chinese border town and killed four civilians 'we have the responsibility and capability to firmly safeguard the stability of the chinese myanmar borderand will firmly protect the lives and property of our citizens,' li said to applause from chinese reporters
chinese
chinese premier says economy faces multiple risks  reform is like 'cutting off a limb,' he adds  highly choreographed press conference only time leader faces media 