China can probably achieve its goal of 8 percent growth this year, but it won't be sustainable in the long term if the economy's overreliance on exports and fixed-asset investments doesn't end, a prominent Chinese economist recently said at a seminar in Tokyo.

With its exports battered by the global recession, China's economic growth fell to 6.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009 but rebounded sharply to 7.9 percent. The next question is whether that growth is sustainable or just temporary, said Yu Yongding, director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Given China's strong fiscal position today, it would be easy for the government to achieve annual GDP growth of at least 8 percent through expansionary fiscal and monetary policies, said Yu, formerly a member of the central bank's monetary policy committee.