For more than a decade, law firms have seen China overshoot its annual economic growth targets, often by a long way. In 2007 a projection of 8 percent growth was well off of the eventual 14 percent.

But those days seem well over. This year, China has set a gross domestic product growth target of 7.5 percent, its lowest in over a decade. Speaking at conference in Washington, D.C., last month, Chinese finance minister Lou Jiwei suggested the country might well fall short of that figure.