'China model' and the role of the Party

The rise of China as an economic power combined with its political stability - under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) - more or less defines what the "China model" is assumed to be. Another definition would be that of an economic system where private and public sectors coexist and competed in the economic field, but where the State still has a great say in the economy and a political model in which the CPC plays the leading role.

That model has been credited with giving China three decades of continuous high economic growth - on average 10 percent a year - lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. The CPC has the merit of having introduced the reform itself and leading the country's development in an environment of political stability.

The CPC is the major surviving communist party in power. A wave of reforms saw most of the communist parties in the East Bloc losing power. In contrast, it is the CPC's continuation in power that has made China's economic miracle possible.