Editor's Note: Growth may incur some pain. A "readjustment" may incur even more.

Manufacturing activity has reached a new low. The A-share stock market tumbled. GDP forecasts have been cut. Debt is piling up.

China's economy is no longer going full steam ahead, driven by a fierce rise in land and property prices, or world-record increases in merchandise exports and foreign direct investment, or countless public projects funded by central and local governments.