The scary talk of millions of workers being laid off has heightened the pain of China's economic transformation, especially for those industries plagued by serious overcapacity such as coal, steel, cement and glass.
But that does not justify a pessimistic view of China's supply side reform that aims to address problems such as excess capacity, excess housing stock and unprofitable "zombie" companies.
Instead, the country's implementing of economic policies to facilitate industrial restructuring and improve the overall quality of goods and services provides an opportunity that all businesses can seize, not just the country's embattled manufacturers, as China becomes a consuming society.
In spite of the short-term impacts of China's economic slowdown, which has rattled international trade, commodities and finance, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, threw her weight behind China's reform strategy when addressing central bankers at a conference in Paris on Tuesday.
She said that China's ambitious multiyear rebalancing of its economy is "a positive endeavor that in the long run, will benefit everybody."
This is a much-needed boost to the confidence of global policymakers in the face of the rough start to 2016, which has prompted warnings of a repeat of the 2008 global financial and economic crisis, because if policymakers allow themselves to be blinded by the immediate difficulties rather than the long-term picture, things could turn even uglier than expected.
Meanwhile, such high-profile recognition of the long-term benefits of China's economic transformation also represents a reminder of the necessity for all businesses to embrace the country's supply side reforms.
It is not only those factories struggling with excess industrial capacity and falling prices that have to remake themselves in line with the country's supply side reform, all companies, domestic and foreign, will need to adapt to the changing times.
This means better meeting the growing appetite of Chinese consumers for high-quality goods and services. An avalanche of complaints about poor tourist services or fake goods bought online are clear evidence that businesses in China's domestic tourism market and online retail market still have a lot to do to serve consumers in the fast-growing domestic market.
The sharp contrast between the growth stories of KFC and Starbucks in China may attest to the fact that success is not guaranteed even for foreign champions if they cannot follow the changing tastes of Chinese consumers.
On the one hand, the great enthusiasm with which Chinese consumers have embraced Starbucks prompted the Seattle company to say recently that it expects China to eventually overtake the United States as the coffee chain's largest market. It said that it is on track to open 500 stores in China this year and expects to have a total of 3,400 stores in China by 2019.
On the other hand, KFC, a long-term top player in China's fast food market, has been hit by food safety scandals and its clumsy attempts to adapt to Chinese consumers' inclination to use smartphone apps to order food, forcing its parent company to cut its global forecasts due to the weakness in China.
A glance at KFC's changing fortunes in China will probably add credit to the narrative that slowing growth in the world's second-biggest economy is hitting consumers' willingness to fork out on discretionary spending. But a close look at Starbucks' contrasting fortunes warrants a second thought about gloomy predictions for the Chinese economy.
There may be reasons in terms of their business models or management to explain the different growth stories of the two US brands in China.
But the simple fact to remember is not everyone will benefit from China's economic transition. It is only those who keep focusing on supply side reform that will win as China establishes itself as the world's largest consumer market.
