Regarding China's growth outlook over the next few years, Nie believed it highly depends on how successful China shifts from an investment-driven economy to a more consumption-driven economy.

"If growth in expanding areas such as services more than offset the slowing areas such as manufacturing, it is possible to see a stable growth path during the transition," Nie said.

Lardy also believed the service sector will likely continue to drive China's economic growth and help avoid a "hard landing" in the next couple of years.

He hoped that the Chinese leadership will use this opportunity to deleverage its highly indebted firms and implement the economic reform agenda that the Communist Party of China outlined more than two years ago.

"That is the most realistic basis for sustaining growth and moving China ultimately into the ranks of the high-income countries," Lardy said.