Tackle ills of growth model

Domestic and overseas scholars both have been engaged in a debate over whether there is a "Chinese model" of economic development. The debate heated up after the Chinese economy escaped the worst impacts of the global economic crisis.

A few years ago, Joshua Cooper Ramo, then senior advisor to Goldman Sachs and part-time professor in Tsinghua University, presented the "Beijing Consensus" - as different from the "Washington Consensus" - to expound the different paths of economic development. It was recognition of the "Chinese model" by a Western scholar.

Judging from the ownership of its means of production, extent of intervention in economic activities, and the role it plays in handling demand and supply relations and distribution of resources, China's is a "market socialism" economic model. As an economic institution different both from typical capitalism and socialism, China has always adhered to the cardinal principles of socialist public ownership and the market economy. The Chinese government has not only maintained the dominant status of public ownership, but also created room for the private ownership so that they can play their respective parts in the economy and distribution of resources.